MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Saturday, a devastating 7.8-magnitude quake occurred in Nepal, followed by a series of aftershocks. The earthquake has killed more than 3,700, according to latest reports. Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in neighboring India, Bangladesh and China.
"There are buildings that are neither engineered nor adequately designed for an earthquake. Then there are those which are engineered but not adequately designed for earthquakes. In [New] Delhi, 80% of buildings fall in either of these two categories," Mahesh Tandon, the president of Indian Association of Structural Engineers, was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
According to the news outlet, Indian officials at one time attempted to protect a few old buildings in New Delhi, including the Secretariat and Police Headquarters, from a quake, but the "work was never completed."
A supreme court ruling to label buildings occupied by more than a 100 people as "earthquake-prone" was never implemented, the newspaper highlighted.
The earthquake in Nepal caused major destruction to the region and triggered deadly avalanches on Mount Everest and surrounding mountainous areas, killing tourists from the United States, Britain, India and France, among others.
