A strong earthquake has shaken north-western Nepal, and officials said at least 54 people were dead and dozens more injured as rescuers searched mountain villages.

Officials said the toll is expected to rise, noting that communications were cut off with many places.

The quake, which hit when many people were asleep in their homes, was felt in India’s capital New Delhi, more than 500 miles away.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 and occurred at a depth of 11 miles.

Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring & Research Centre said its epicentre was at Jajarkot, which is about 250 miles north east of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.

The quake killed at least 28 people in Rukum district, where numerous houses collapsed, police official Narvaraj Bhattarai said.

Thirty injured people have been taken to the local hospital, he added.

In neighbouring Jajarkot district, 26 people were confirmed dead, government official Harish Chandra Sharma said.

He said security officials were working with villagers in the darkness to pull the dead and injured from fallen houses, but reaching some spots was difficult because some of the trails were blocked by landslides triggered by the tremor and its aftershocks.

Earthquakes are common in mountainous Nepal. A 7.8 magnitude tremor in 2015 killed 9,000 people and damaged about a million structures.