KATHMANDU: A tremor violently shook the Kathmandu Valley at around 10:15 pm today, forcing people, many of them either preparing for or already in bed, to go outdoors.

According to an update on the National Seismological Centre's official website, a light aftershock of local magnitude 4.6 was recorded at 10:14 pm with its epicentre in Kathmandu.

The coordinates 27.70°N, 85.32°E, revised by the Lainchaur-based NSC and its Regional Seismological Centre, show that the tremor had originated near Bhrikuti Mandap and Singha Durbar, which houses the office of Nepal's Prime Minister and other ministries, in downtown Kathmandu.

Earlier, the NSC had said that the epicentre was about 20 km north-east of Kathmandu in Sindhupalchok district, at a place between Bhotechaur of Sindhupalchok and Nanglebhare of Kathmandu, with its coordinates 27.79°N, 85.52°E.

With this, the number of significant aftershocks of local magnitude 4.0 or above has reached 354, according to the NSC records.

The last significant aftershock was recorded at 8:09 am yesterday. It was of local magnitude 4.3 with its epicentre close to Na Gaun of Dolakha, north-east of the district headquarters Charikot.

The official death toll of the April 25 earthquake and its aftershocks has been put at 8,898 so far by the Ministry of Home Affairs' Disaster Risk Reduction Portal.