The Himalayan nation of Nepal shook Saturday as an earthquake of approximately at 7.9 on the Richter scale struck not far from its capital, Kathmandu.  Areas of the historic center of the city were flattened and a 200-foot tower collapsed into a pile of bricks, trapping sightseers. The epicenter was about 50 miles northwest of Kathmandu.

Two people were reported dead at Mount Everest, which saw a major avalanche. As of this report, 34 deaths have also been reported in India.

Nepal’s major television station, NTV, with its studios crushed, was broadcasting at first from the street outside. However, as of this writing, its website was not operating.

The streets Kathmandu were filled with people as buildings, billowing clouds of dust, fell to the ground. Wide fissures opened along paved streets. Hospitals overflowed and the injured lucky enough to receive treatment did so outdoors.

At least twelve aftershocks rocked the region, one with a magnitude as high as 6.6. One person described the quake as if being on a boat in heavy seas. The iconic, nine-story Dharahara Tower, constructed by order of the queen in 1832, fell to rubble.

Although the seismically active area has endured many earthquakes over the last century, this may have been the one long feared, where pressure built up between tectonic plates was fully released. However, the quake hit on a Saturday afternoon, when schools were not in session, so the loss of human life could be less than what would have been possible.

Recent years have seen multi-story concrete buildings hastily erected outside the city core. But it initially appeared that collapsed buildings were mostly in the historic area of the city.