Most buildings in Kathmandu unsafe or uninhabitable after quake, says survey

A new survey has revealed that more than three quarters of the buildings in Nepal's capital Kathmandu are uninhabitable or unsafe after the earthquake measuring 7.9 magnitude hit the country.

According to the Guardian, an assessments of 2,500 buildings carried out by more than 1,000 local engineers during the last four days have revealed that a fifth are no longer habitable and three-quarters need repairs before they can be considered safe.

Survey coordinator Drubha Thapa, president of the Nepali Engineers Association (NEA) said that the sample was a random and representative of the whole city but a throrough assessment was still pending.

Local officials have so far counted 153,000 buildings that are in ruins across the country, with another 170,000 damaged.