|
 Officials said the chances of finding more survivors were fading
as the death toll neared 5,500.
But Nepal's Armed Police Force managed to save 15-year-old Pema Lama
from the collapsed ruins of Kathmandu's Hilton Hotel to huge cheers
from the onlooking crowd.
While rescuers were out in the capital despite heavy morning rain,
helicopters could not fly to the worst-hit areas in the countryside
of the Himalayan nation.
"The rain is adding to the problems. Nature seems to be against us,"
said Rameshwor Dandal, chief of the disaster management center at
Nepal's home ministry.
Many people have been sleeping in the open since Saturday's quake.
According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed
or damaged.
Eight million people have been affected, with at least two million
in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three
months.
 An official from Nepal's home ministry said the number of confirmed
deaths from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake had risen to 5,489 by
Thursday morning, and almost 11,000 were injured. More than 80
people have been killed in neighboring India and Tibet.
Anger over the pace of the rescue has flared up in some areas, with
Nepalis accusing the government of being too slow to distribute
international aid that has flooded into the country.
It has yet to reach many in need, particularly in remote areas hard
to access given the quake damage and weather conditions.Tensions
between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated have also
surfaced. In Langtang valley, where 150 people are feared trapped, a
helicopter pilot was taken hostage by locals demanding to be
evacuated first, one report said.
Russell Brice, head of climbing company Himalayan Experience, said
he had asked the government to send a military helicopter to fly
into Langtang to rescue the stranded, including three of his
Indonesian clients, because civilian helicopter teams were afraid to
go there.
"EVERYTHING ON OUR OWN"
In Ashrang village in Gorkha, one of the worst-hit districts about
four hours by road from Kathmandu, hundreds of Nepali villagers were
living out in the open with little food and water despite boxes of
biscuits, juices and sacks of rice and wheat being stored in a
nearby government office.Police commandos shut the high iron gates
of the building, refusing people access while they counted the
relief supplies."We told them we can manage without their help,"
said Mohammad Ishaq, a school teacher, who had been offered four
plastic sheets. "It is as if we are doing everything on our own,
feeding our people, tending to the sick."
In Sangachowk village, another badly hit district, a stand-off on
Wednesday between soldiers and angry local residents who blocked
trucks carrying supplies to earthquake victims was resolved and the
vehicles were allowed to pass.
The army promised villagers it would return with aid later.
Foreign rescue teams told government officials their work was nearly
done because there was little chance of finding many more survivors.
energy to shout and I survived."
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A Nepali-French rescue team pulled a 28-year-old man, Rishi Khanal,
from a collapsed apartment block in Kathmandu on Tuesday after he
had spent around 80 hours trapped in a room with three dead
bodies."I managed to take out the handkerchief from my pocket,
soaked it with my urine and squeezed it in my mouth," Khanal
told Reuters on Thursday, a day after he had one of his legs
amputated. "It gave me some
But he wondered how he would live with his injury, which would
prevent him seeking work in the Middle East as a laborer or on a
farm in Nepal.
"I don't even have the money to buy a wheelchair now. How will I
spend the rest of my life and support my family?"
APPEAL FOR HELICOPTERSNepal is appealing to foreign governments for
more helicopters. There are currently about 20 Nepali army, private
and Indian army helicopters involved in rescue operations, according
to Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, a home ministry official.
China is expected to send helicopters on Thursday, he said.Prime
Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters earlier this week the death
toll could reach 10,000, with information on casualties and damage
from far-flung villages and towns yet to come in.
That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last
disaster on this scale to hit the nation of 28 million people
sandwiched between India and China.
In Kathmandu and other cities, hospitals quickly overflowed with
injured soon after the quake, with many being treated out in the
open or not at all.
"The new waves of patients are those who survived the quake, but are
sick because they were living in the open and drinking contaminated
water," said Binay Pandey, a doctor at the government-run Bir
Hospital in the capital.Pandey said at least 1,200 patients
suffering from water-borne illnesses had been admitted in the
hospital since Wednesday morning.
Sporadic rains made it difficult for students and volunteers to
clean the streets and dispose of garbage.
In the Himalayas, climbing is set to reopen on Mount Everest next
week after damage caused by avalanches triggered by the quake is
repaired.
A massive avalanche wiped out a swath of Everest base camp, killing
18 climbers and sherpa mountain guides and injuring more than 60 on
Saturday. Many climbers have abandoned their ascent of Everest, the
world's tallest peak at 8,850 m (29,035 feet).
(Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Rupam Nair, Frank Jack
Daniel, Andrew Marshall, Adnan Abidi and Christophe Van Der Perre in
Kathmandu, Aman Shah and Clara Ferreira-Marques in Mumbai, Aditya
Kalra, Douglas Busvine in New Delhi; Writing by Andrew MacAskill;
Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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