Earthquake experts prophetically discussed how an inevitable and devastating quake would impact on Nepal as they met in the country’s capital last week.

More than 50 specialists gathered in Kathmandu for a seminar on how to minimise the devastation an earthquake would cause in the developing country.

• Terrifying footage shows horror of Nepal quake
• In pictures: earthquake devastates Nepal

The meeting came just says ahead of Sunday’s deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake which claimed the lives of more than 2500 people.

Cambridge University earth sciences professor James Jackson attended the conference and said he felt the earthquake was a “disaster waiting to happen”.

Cambridge University professor James Jackson.

“I was walking through that very area where that earthquake was and I thought at the very time that the area was heading for trouble,” Mr Jackson said, according to a report by The Telegraph.

Experts feared the death toll from a Nepalese earthquake would be devastating due to the country’s poor infrastructure and high population density.

“It’s buildings that kill people not earthquakes,” said Mr Jackson, who also works as a scientist for Earthquakes Without Frontiers, a group that tries to make Asia more earthquake-resilient.

Major earthquakes in the region occur on a cycle of approximately every 75 years, he said.

“Physically and geologically what happened is exactly what we thought would happen.”

“It was sort of a nightmare waiting to happen.”

Hundreds are still missing, with the death toll expected to rise.

At least one Australia has reportedly been killed but is yet to be confirmed the the Department of Foreign Affairs.