Kathmandu: A shallow earthquake measuring 7.9 magnitude struck west of the ancient Nepali capital of Kathmandu on Saturday causing buildings to collapse, injuring many and leaving a pall of dust over the city, witnesses said.
The death toll from a powerful earthquake has risen to 688, a senior home ministry official said, with 181 people killed in the capital Kathmandu.The quake measuring 7.9 is the strongest to hit the country in 81 years.
Below is a list of some of the world's deadliest earthquakes in the past 30 years--
August 11, 2012: Twin earthquakes with a magnitude 6.3 and 6.4 leave 306 dead and more than 3,000 injured near the Iranian city of Tabriz.
March 11, 2011: Nearly 18,900 got killed when a tsunami triggered by a massive magnitude 9.0 undersea quake slams into the northeast coast of Japan, triggering a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant.
October 23, 2011: An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude rocked eastern Turkey, leaving more than 600 dead and at least 4,150 injured.
January 12, 2010: Magnitude 7.0 quake hit Haiti, leaving between 250,000 and 300,000 dead.
April 14, 2010: A 6.9-magnitude quake hit Yushu county in northwest China's Qinghai province leaving 3,000 people dead and missing.
May 12, 2008: A quake measuring 8.0 hit China's southwest province of Sichuan, leaving more than 87,000 people dead or missing.
May 27, 2006: A powerful quake in Indonesia's Yogyakarta region killed 6,000 and left 1.5 million homeless.
October 8, 2005: An earthquake of 7.6 killed more than 75,000 people, the vast majority of them in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Some 3.5 million displaced.
March 28, 2005: An earthquake on Indonesia's Nias island off Sumatra left 900 dead.
December 26, 2004: A massive undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra island triggered a tsunami which kills 220,000 in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
December 26, 2003: A quake measuring 6.7 hit the Iranian city of Bam, killing at least 31,884 people and injuring 18,000.
January 26, 2001: A massive 7.7 earthquake hit the western Indian state of Gujarat, killing 25,000 people and injuring 166,000.
September 30, 1993: A 6.3-magnitude quake hit the western Indian state of Maharashtra, killing 7,601.
October 20, 1991: A quake measuring 6.6 hit the Himalayan foothills of Uttar Pradesh state in India, killing 768.
August 20, 1988: A magnitude 6.8 quake hit eastern Nepal, killing 721 people in Nepal and at least 277 in the neighbouring Indian state of Bihar.
