Maltese photographer Jan Zammit scrambled frantically to get out of his guesthouse in Kathmandu yesterday as a second devastating earthquake hit Nepal in as many months.

“I didn’t even have shoes on but the whole building was shaking so strongly that I knew I had to get out. Walls outside were crumbling and I didn’t know if it was the stairs above or beneath me. I thought to myself. I’m going to get trapped,” Mr Zammit, 27, said.

Yesterday’s 7.3 magnitude earthquake killed more than a dozen people in the Himalayan country and neighbouring states, as many buildings already weakened by last month’s much bigger quake were brought down.

Mr Zammit was in the centre of Kathmandu when the earthquake struck, and said he had seen a few rescue operations under way but had seen no survivors being pulled out.

“I don’t think I can handle seeing another dead body,” he said, speaking from the roof of his accommodation in central Kathmandu.

Mr Zammit has been providing Times of Malta with photographs of the aftermath of the first disaster, including a stunning series on rescue and rebuilding operations.

I knew if the building went down I would have lost everything

Yesterday’s earthquake was centred 68 kilometres west of the town of Namche Bazaar, close to Mount Everest and the border with Tibet. International reports said the tremors could be felt as far away as northern India and Bangladesh.

The quake was followed by at least half a dozen aftershocks, including one as big as 6.3.

Buildings swayed in New Delhi, sending office workers scurrying out onto the streets. Residents in the Indian town of Siliguri, near the border with Nepal, said chunks of concrete fell off one or two buildings.

In a statement, Nepal’s Home Affairs Ministry said the death toll from the quake had reached 19, with 981 injured – fresh reports of injured were still coming in at the time of writing.

Five people were killed in Indian states bordering Nepal, one in Uttar Pradesh and four in Bihar, officials said, while Chinese media reported one person died in Tibet after rocks fell on a car.

Mr Zammit said the damage had not been too bad in central Kathmandu. He speculated about whether this was because most of the weaker structures had already crumbled during the first quake.

He said this was his first earthquake experience and while he was “terrified”, he knew exactly what was happening when it hit.

“My first thought was to get my camera equipment and my hard drive to try and salvage my photos. I knew if the building went down I would have lost everything.”

Nepal is still picking up the pieces from the devastation caused by last month’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake, the country’s worst in more than 80 years, which killed at least 8,046 people and injured more than 17,800.

Hundreds of thousands of buildings, including many ancient sites, were destroyed and many more damaged.

Mr Zammit has spent the past few weeks documenting the efforts of locals and international organisations to try and piece the country back together. He said he would not return home as yet and was healthy and in good spirits.

Large groups of mountaineers seeking to scale the world’s tallest peak have called off this year’s Everest season after 18 people died when last month’s quake triggered avalanches on the mountain.

Dambar Parajuli, president of Expedition Operators’ Association of Nepal, yesterday said there were no climbers or Nepali sherpa guides at the Base Camp, which had been cleared of all personnel.