>> digging for survivors in kathmandu after nepal city is flattened by earthquakes. 800 people have died. the need for shelter and food is enormous. live from london, i'm david foster. coming up in the next 30 minutes battles continue in yemen as fighters loyal to president hadi try to repel houthi bellows. hundreds more migrants rescued

off the coast of libya arrive and the european union promises to step up its efforts. >> a steen of devastation, we understand that more than 1100 people have been reported killed in one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit any pal nepal in decades. the injured treated outside in the streets fears of aftershocks and more collapse meant that this was, in fact, the safest place to do so. it destroyed monuments and

buildings. this is before the quake and this is after it was reduced to republic. to--rubble. >> it's the most powerful earthquake to hit nepal in decades. the army is sifting through the rubble breck by brick, looking for signs of life as well as bodies. the number killed are rapidly increasing. hundreds of bodies have been recovered. >> many are trapped in the rubble and they're mobilizing the screen so people trapped in the rubble can be helped. >> hospitals are being set up in the streets and treatment is basic. the worst damage is in old kathmandu. it's if you would of full of

narrow winding rains pull full of rubble making it difficult for rescuers to get in. tourists were climbing the tower when the earthquake struck and at least 16 bodies have been pulled out. around 2.5 million people live in kathmandu valley. there are reports that whole villages have been destroyed. tremors from the quake are hitting me nearby india. >> let's here from subina

subinashrestha. >> this is a world heritage site and you can see it's devastated. kathmandu its been mostly monuments. we heard that more than 600 people have died around here. there have been reports of avalanche at everest. there are still new reports of how bad this devastation is. electricity lines have been cut off. communication has been quite problematic, and most people are still afraid to go into their houses. it looks like a storm is coming through, and most people have taken up shelter in open squares. they have prepared to spend the night, and if the storm comes it will be a cold and wet need for a lot of people here in kathmandu. >> as we were mentioning at the top of the program we believe the death toll to be over 1100. this is what we're getting from

the reuters news agency. the police in nepal saying 1,130 people are known to have died. of that 634 died in the kathmandu valley, away from the capital itself. at least 300 more in the capital. let's bring in a spokesman from the world charity via skype. as i understand it, you have no electricity. we're seeing your face by torchlight. tell us about the work that you're trying to do. >> thank you. as you can see my brother is holding with another phone a flashlight and it's all dark in here and certainly the darkest night that nepal has ever witnessed. i cannot go out of my home. i need to take another route because the walls across my home are all crumbled down. when i just moved down to the

hotel where there was workshop, which is happening with its national delegates i could--j. >> well, we did expect something like that. we'll try to get back in touch with depesh from world vision. but communication in nepal is difficult, as you can well understand. the earthquake caused an avalanche at mt. everest where ten people were killed there. nepal's tourist service said that there may be as many as 1,000 people on the mountain. they say that efforts to bring people down are well under way. >> we could be looking at a weather condition we'll arrange all of our rescue, in fact our

ground rescue team is already in operation. given the problems that we're facing telephone lines are sometimes switching on and off we'll try to sort this out. it's bit hard for us to give specific location. >> we have re-established contact with world vision depesh and you were telling us the moment that the earth struck. what are your priorities now for the people out on the streets. presumably not everyone has been yet accounted for. you have the basic need of

water, shelter there are shelter created by the center of the earthquake was london, and we have we have tents out there but lots can be done more. i tell you that the situation is really very devastating here. >> we keep losing the picture. explain to our viewersers that's as because you're operating by torchlight and you're doing the best you can. when the screen goes back, it's not because we've actually lost you. tell us about the rescue efforts now that light has fallen. now that it's dark, it must be impossible. are there lights everywhere working often generators to help rescuers. >> it's not the case. i'm outside of my house. i don't see a light at all and that really causes a lot of

trouble in the rescue operation. and just to let you go, nepal as a country we witnessed load sharing every day. and with this situation at present it's blackout. in the evening we could hear people just moving around trying to see how they're trying to rescue people by themselves. but we've been alerted by the local media not to--to remain safe. we just heard the announcement by local authority not to go into houses. including myself, family and neighbors, just having a temporary shelter. we're very concerned about the most vulnerable children who have been impacted by this massive earthquake, a lot to be accounted for. some of my friends and staff we're it was declared that the

unesco cultural heritage, and the temples just collapsed and crumbled. it is something very devastating devastating. as we wait for the morning i'm sure this will be a long night for many people. many people still on the street in apprehension. >> we'll leave you to get on with the work that you can do. thank you very much, indeed, for talking with us. live out of kathmandu operating by torchlight. parts of india we saw on the map just how far the tremors had been felt. there were deaths in india as well? >> that's correct. we're looking at 30 people confirmed dead at the moment. the authorities in india are expecting that number to potentially continue to rise with 100 centered in the state

of bahar alone. the tremors felt far and wide from you new delhi all the way to the east in west bengal. well in terms of the response that has happened relatively quickly. we've seen four air force planes take off headed to nepal. they've landed with humanitarian supplies, sniffer dogs and experienced response teams from india. however, we have the latest lines within the last couple of moments here. we're hearing that two choppers from india, from the indian air force did try and did take off in india and headed towards nepal. but turned around and came back owing to bad weather. that just highlights again as subi na has mentioned with potential storms rolling in, a difficult time in terms of get morgue relief in before the morning. it will be interesting to see how things shape up on the

indian side as well. >> i was going to ask you about the areas that have been affected. are they inaccessible or quite easy to get relief aid and workers in to? >> teams are being stationed there. in terms of accessibility look at, it's still quite early days, there may be more assessment toss take place on the indian side of the himalayan range tomorrow in the following days when it may shed more light on the conditions there. however, we're waiting to see the vast amount of news that come out of the indian government this afternoon has impact been of the kind of relief and response effort india is mobilizing from nepal. given that there could be suggestions that the focus area is not necessarily inside of

india at this point in time given that we're seeing much smaller numbers in terms of casualty and injured in the indian states. >> thank you. let's bring in dr. brian bahti. live on skype 7.8 this is a pretty big earthquake? >> this, this is probably the biggest earthquake to hit since 1954. earthquakes of this size are capable of causing devastation and destruction. >> with the way you measured the the tetonic plates are you able

to predict the movement of the earthquake. >> no, it's impossible to measure of how big and where earthquakes might be. but we can talk about hazards of where earthquakes occur, how often they occur. that helps to plan accordingly so it's possible to construct buildings so it minimizes the amount of damage, and for communities and people to become more resilient if they're aware possibility of these things happening. >> earthquakes happen at different depths. sometimes they're at 100 kilometers or so under the surface of the earth. but this was not that deep. >> this was a shallow earthquake, and because it's so near the surface it can make the

strength of the shaking obviously much stronger because the earthquake is closer. and in this part of the world earthquakes generally are quite shallow. >> are we likely to see another significant quake in the days ahead given what we've seen in the last few hours. >> that's incredibly hard to say. we will certainly see aftershocks. the rule of thumb is that it's generally one order magnitude. that means that we monitor the earthquakes 6.8 which are big earthquakes in their own right. we've seen one 6.6 earthquake. so those may continue for weeks months after the earthquake itself. although the number may reduce in time. those can happen.

>> thank you our seismologyical expert there. >> thank you. >> still ahead on this program we'll have more on this earthquake. and we have a reports on that. stay with us if you can.

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>> other top stories here on al jazeera. more than 1100 people have been killed in one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit nepal in decades. the 7.8 magnitude quake was between kathmandu and pokahara. it caused an avalanche at mt. everesting killing ten people there. >> historic buildings flattened monuments among them, and they are a center part of nepal's tourist industry.

>> a ridge history is etched into the architecture. nepal is situated between mainly hindu india and buddhist tibet. this is where both religions converge. it's known as the only hindu kingdom and revered as a birthplace of lord buddhist tibet atbuddha. foreigners come to see religious monuments that have stood for centuries. before parts of it were flattened in the earthquake, kathmandu's square looked like this. the world heritage site brought in much needed tourist dollars. for all its cultural wealth nepal is a poor countries. it's people rely on foreign aid and tourism. the industry employees nearly the same number of people as

visitors it attracts. nepal's role calf attractions include everest. april is a start of climbing season. over the last few weeks hundreds of people have been preparing to begin their expeditions. >> we've had a lot of disturbances. all along we had quite a few avalanches coming down off those faces. some people are going up towards camp one. we should hear from them soon. i hope all is well up there. >> al jazeera. >> well, syrian activists say that rebel fighters have taken a strategic city in the northwest of the country. the fighters took control of the idleb province after days of fighting. the group calls itself gesh al

fat at a and is targeting towns nearby. in yemen saudi led coalition's airstrikes in aden. >> rounds of artillery target houthi fighters along the coast. in aden fighters from popular resistence committees loyal to abd rabbuh mansur hadi try to prevent the city from falling

under houthi control. the men have never had military training and some have never held weapons. >> they've never had any kind of training but thank god the resilience are heroic. they've kept the houthies from controlling aiden. >> on the outskirts of aden, battles continue and local resistence fighters were able to push back the houthis. and in the west of the capital army units of local fighters attack other positions. >> we call on help to do it. this is for yemen. >> fighters loyal to president hadi have been on the offensive for the last few days. they've been pushing forward in

sanaa and areas largely controlled by houthis and loyalists to deposeed president ali abdullah saleh. al jazeera. >> egypt's president extended the state of emergency in the nor'easter area north east area of sinai. curfews remain in place. more migrants arriving in italy in the port of augusta on the island of sicily. let's go to our correspondent barnaby phillips, and if you can, give us the latest. >> that's right. david, thank you. in the navy ship behind me they drew up in the dock about an hour ago. we've been watching groups of

migrants disembarking ever since traps you can see some coming down the gang plank as we speak. you can see that there are 300 to 400 people on board. they look to be from sub sahara africa. a large number of somalis. most of them men the typical pattern, of course. but we've seen 15 women come down as well. one very little girl holding her mother's hands smiling. she came down first of all. and so i the point is that there is no sign that this tide of humanity cross crossing the mediterranean is slowing at all. european governments have come together and committed themselves to more air resources, greater efforts of

search search and rescue in order to make that journey a little less perilous. but that's going to take time before all those assets are out there in the mediterranean. the european governments have made commitments and have not always met them. so there is a great deal of concern here. reception centers filling up all the time. of course, what the italians had hoped for from that summit in brussels on thursday was a greater commitment from other european country sharing the load of refugee asylum seekers coming in to europe. they encountered resistence from northern europe and part of the argument from countries like germany and the united kingdom has always been yes italy greece spain the south are significant points of entry but in the end these people by hook or by crook do end up in northern europe.

this is prosperous countries countries where they believe they'll be tweeted better. the people we have been talking to say they're often talking about sweden, germany. we see one man gingerly taking his steps down the gang plank and arriving on european soil. >> thank you. barnaby phillips in the civilian port of augusta. we apologize for the break up of the sound but we understand exactly what he was trying to get over. russian bikers are headed towards germany heading to the potential clash on the polish border. driving the red army the forces of nazi germany back to berlin. they aim to reach the can you

remember german capital may 9th, but they say they'll stop the riders at the border. they're worried about the riders from the nationalist night wolves group in the convoy. in the next hour we'll see the election of the togo president. 300million voters are choosing between five candidates. elections will be over the next ten days. the electronic system was abandoned over fears of over its reliability. let's hear now from the capital. >> this is the polling station where the main opposition candidate cast his vote earlier. the whole place went while as they inspect the different

polling stations after they cast votes. the incumbent is going for a third term in office. and this debate whether the president should have a third term in office is something that is being talked about across the continent. in this west african region there are only two countries where there are no presidential term limits. that is here and gambia. so that is why there is a lot of attention and focus on this election. and just neighboring burkina faso late last year it's president was forced out of office when he tried to change the constitution so he could run for a third term. that was popular protests that pushed him out. so now we have a situation in togo where the world is watching but also from a local perspective, this is the first time that the local observers will have the opportunity to compare their results with the official results. so if there are any

discrepancies this is something that is going to be highlighted quite quickly and it will be up to the head of the electoral commission to deal with this. >> you'll get a great deal more on our top story there in nepal at www.aljazeera.com. >> the science of fighting a wild fire. >> we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity but we are doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. tonight "techknow" investigates climate change. >> i can really feel it vibrating now. >> it's science versus politics. >> do you know what this is? it's a snowball. >> from a city in the grips of climate crisis. >> neighbors were coming down. everybody was helpin