Katmandu: An earthquake in western Nepal killed at least six villagers, four of them children, as the tremor destroyed mud and brick houses in remote communities living in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The quake struck in the early hours of Wednesday when all families would have been at home and asleep. Its epicenter was located close to a national park in the sparsely populated Doti district, 430 km (270 miles) west of Nepal’s capital, Katmandu.

Local television news channels showed rescuers clearing the rubble in the search for casualties and survivors, while women looked on, sitting in the open with babies wrapped in blankets to shield them from the cold.

Some 536 km (333 miles) to the southwest, residents of the Indian capital, New Delhi, were shaken awake by the power of the 5.6 magnitude tremblor.

Ram Upadhyay, chairman of the Purbi Chowki rural municipality in Doti, said he was in a nearby village when the quake struck at 2.12 am (2027 GMT).

“It shook terribly and I rushed out immediately,” he said. “Now we are collecting details including the dead bodies,“