Five people were killed after a strong earthquake shook eastern parts of Nepal on Sunday evening, police said.

Three people were killed in the Kathmandu Valley and two in western city of Dharan in Sunsari district, some 220km east of capital Kathmandu, according to local ABC television.

The strong tremor lasted for about a minute.

Many residents ran out of their houses on Thamel street in Kathmandu after the quake. "The table, actually, all in my house are shaking," Pan Yuming, the boss of Chinese restaurant told Xinhua.

The epicenter of quake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, was in the border areas of Taplejung district on the eastern Nepal- India border, according to National Seismologic Center in Kathmandu.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet