Latest Nepal Quake Leaves Area 'Like Graveyard'

"Terrified" residents are too scared to return to their homes as Nepal reels from a second deadly earthquake in less than three weeks.

The latest quake killed scores of people and sent panicked families into the street, just 17 days since the devastating 7.8-magnitude tremor killed more than 8,000 and injured almost 20,000.

Charikot, about 75 km (45 miles) east of Kathmandu, was one of the hardest-hit areas.

Aula Bahadur Ale, the assistant administrator of the district, said there were 36 dead in Charikot and surrounding areas and 106 injured.

"It looks like a graveyard here," he said.

"Even those houses that have not been flattened have developed cracks. People are too afraid to go into them. We are still feeling the aftershocks that make people terrified."

Hundreds of Nepali troops are still searching for a missing US Marines helicopter with eight people on board.

The aircraft was delivering aid in Dolakha, one of the worst-hit areas from the 25 April quake, when it went missing with six Marines and two Nepali troops on board.

Authorities say the Marine Corps UH-1Y Huey aircraft lost radio contact after its crew was heard talking about fuel problems.

A Nepali military official said it appeared the helicopter may have come down in one of the rivers that snake through valleys in the district of Dolakha east of the capital, Kathmandu.

"The info we have is that it is down in one of the rivers, but none of the choppers has seen it yet," said Major Rajan Dahal, second-in-command of the Barda Bahadur Battalion, in the district capital, Charikot.

"There are 400-plus of our ground troops looking for it also. By this evening, we might get it."

Nepal home ministry official Laxmi Prasad Dhal said no trace of the missing helicopter had been found but she feared the search was diverting resources from relief and rescue work.

"The work of sending relief and rescuing the injured people to hospitals has been delayed due to this," she said.

Tuesday's 7.3-magnitude quake killed 67 people and destroyed many homes.

A police official in Kathmandu said 1,928 people had been injured in Tuesday's quake, which also killed 17 people in neighbouring India.