Laprak is normally a place teeming with life. The 2,000 inhabitants of its 460 stone houses farm the surrounding terraces and dry crops on wooden platforms. Now, this village at the epicentre of the Nepalese earthquake more closely resembled matchwood. As emergency aid flights from Britain and around the world began to land in Kathmandhu, bringing with them desperately needed supplies for hundreds of thousands in need of food and water, the first glimpse was offered of the devastation wrought on Nepal’s remote Gorkha region at the heart of Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake. A picture taken from a helicopter overflying Laprak some 140 miles west of the capital, obtained by The Independent, shows...
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