Nepal quake death toll rises again as rescuers bid to reach remote areas

At least 4,352 bodies have so far been recovered after last week’s massive earthquake that struck just outside of Nepal‘s capital Kathmandu.

Nepalese and Indian rescue teams remove a body from the collapsed Sitapyla church in Kathmandu, Nepal. Image by PA Wire

Deputy Inspector General of Police Komal Singh Bam said the toll includes 1,176 bodies recovered in Sindhupalchuk district, just north-east of the capital.

He says 8,063 people have been injured in the magnitude 7.8 quake.

Another 18 people were also killed in a quake-triggered avalanche that swept the Everest base camp.

In neighbouring India 61 people were killed and China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported 25 dead in Tibet.

Rescue teams carry a body dug out of the collapsed Sitapyla church in Kathmandu, Nepal. A strong earthquake shook Nepal’s capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley on Saturday. Image by PA Wire

Soldiers were preparing to make a push into the most isolated parts of Nepal, readying food, water and other emergency supplies to be loaded onto helicopters.

Gorkha, near the earthquake’s epicentre, which would barely count as a village in much of the world, is the district’s administrative, transport and trading centre for surrounding tiny villages.

It is being used as a staging post to get rescuers and supplies to those remote communities, some of which are believed to be nearly completely destroyed.

“In the rural areas, 90% of the people have been affected by this calamity,” district official Surya Mohan Adhikari said.

“They have lost their homes and livestock, they have no way of getting food.

“It is very difficult to reach them. They are cut off by road slides on the mountain roads, and the wind and rain is making it difficult for helicopters to land.”

Rescue teams search for bodies in the collapsed Sitapyla church in Kathmandu, Nepal. Image by PA Wire

Nepal was facing a humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands rendered homeless by the earthquake are living in the open without clean water or sanitation.

Chaos reigned back at Kathmandu’s small airport, with the onslaught of relief flights creating major backups on the tarmac.

Four Indian air force aircraft carrying communication gear, aid supplies and rescue personnel were forced to return to New Delhi because of airport congestion, according to Sitanshu Kar, India’s defence ministry spokesman.

The United Nations says it was releasing £9.8 million from its central emergency response fund for quake victims.

Damaged buildings lean to their sides in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, April 27, 2015. A strong magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook Nepal’s capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley on Saturday, causing extensive damage with toppled walls and collapsed buildings. Image by (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

The funds will allow international humanitarian groups to scale up operations and provide shelter, water, medical supplies and logistical services, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Trucks carrying food were on their way to affected districts outside the hard-hit and densely-populated Kathmandu valley, and distribution of the food was expected to start today.

Citing government figures, Mr Haq said an estimated 8 million people have been affected by the quake in 39 of Nepal’s districts, and more than 1.4 million need food assistance, including 750,000 who live near the epicentre in poor quality housing.

The UN humanitarian country team for Nepal is co-ordinating international relief efforts with the government and a clearer picture of needs should emerge within the next 48 hours, he said.

The immediate priority is search and rescue, and removing debris to find survivors still trapped.

One of the Kathmandu ‘s landmark Bhimsen tower is seen in rubbles after it was damaged in Saturday Image by PA Wire

Buildings in parts of the capital, Kathmandu, were reduced to rubble, and there were shortages of food, fuel, electricity and shelter.

As bodies were recovered, relatives cremated the dead along the Bagmati River, and at least a dozen pyres burned late into the night.

Conditions were far worse in the countryside, with rescue workers still struggling to reach mountain villages three days after the earthquake.

Some roads and trails to the Gorkha district were blocked by landslides – but also by traffic jams that regularly clog the route north of Kathmandu.

Jagdish Pokhrel, a clearly exhausted army spokesman, said nearly the entire 100,000-soldier army was involved in rescue operations.

“We have 90% of the army out there working on search and rescue,” he said. “We are focusing our efforts on that, on saving lives.”

A helicopter prepares to rescue people from camp 1 and 2 at Everest Base Camp, Nepal on Monday, April, 27, 2015. On Saturday, a large avalanche triggered by Nepal’s massive earthquake slammed into a section of the Mount Everest mountaineering base camp, killing a number of people and left others unaccounted for. Image by (Azim Afif via AP)

The quake has strained the resources of the impoverished country best known for Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

The economy of Nepal, a nation of 27.8 million people south of the mountain, relies heavily on tourism, principally trekking and climbing.

Two teams of US Army Green Beret soldiers happened to be in Nepal when the quake struck, and the 26 Americans – who were training with the Nepalese army – are staying to help with search-and-relief efforts.

Medical and rescue teams from Russia, Japan, France, Switzerland and Singapore were expected in Kathmandu over the coming days, the Nepal army said.

Fearful of strong aftershocks, tens of thousands of families spent a third night outdoors in parks, open squares and a golf course, bundled against the chilly Himalayan night.

Among them was Prabina Mainali, a 26-year-old teacher who gave birth to a boy yesterday in a Kathmandu hospital – a bit of good news in a sea of despair.

“It’s hard that he can’t be in his own home right now. He should be there, we should be there, but we aren’t safe. We’re afraid of the aftershocks,” she said, feeding the as-yet unnamed infant from a bottle as a half-dozen relatives cooked a meal on a gas cooker outside the tent in a grassy park.

“We’re not safe at home. Here we have less to worry about,” she said, adding that her house was not seriously damaged, but windows and other glass inside was shattered.

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