The death toll from the April 25 earthquake in the Himalayan
nation has reached 7,557, the government said.
About 100 bodies were recovered on Saturday and Sunday at Langtang
village, 60 km (37 miles) north of Kathmandu, which is on a trekking
route popular with Westerners. The entire village, which includes 55
guesthouses for trekkers, was wiped out by the avalanche and
rescuers are digging in the snow for signs of about 120 others
believed buried.
Gautam Rimal, assistant chief district officer in the area where
Langtang is located, said authorities had not made contact with
Langtang for more 24 hours because of bad weather.
"We hope to send a rescue helicopter today (Tuesday) to the area,"
he said. "We'll know the situation then."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/05/images/ads/current/napa_bch1-3108.png) The dead include at least seven foreigners, but only two had been
identified, he said.
The government has begun asking foreign teams to wrap up search and
rescue operations as hopes of finding people alive in the rubble
receded.
"They can leave. If they are also specialists in clearing the
rubble, they can stay," Rameshwor Dangal, an official at Nepal's
home ministry, told Reuters on Monday.
EVEREST ROUTE DAMAGED
A European Union source said only about 60 citizens from the
28-nation bloc were still unaccounted for. Last week a senior EU
official had estimated around 1,000 EU citizens were missing after
the quake.
The number is "going down by the hour" as rescue teams reach remoter
areas, the EU source said.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said helicopters chartered by the
embassy in Kathmandu had rescued 17 U.S. citizens in total from
remote areas hit by the quake. The United States has provided $14.2
million in humanitarian aid since the quake.
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The government has said it has not closed Mount Everest, the world's
highest peak, to climbers, although the route to the summit has been
damaged by the earthquake. At least 18 people were killed on Everest
when the earthquake struck.
Climbers pay $11,000 each to climb Everest, and 357 were registered
for this climbing season. Last year, the government extended permits
when teams abandoned their expeditions after an avalanche killed 16
Sherpa mountain guides.
The United Nations has said 8 million of Nepal's 28 million people
were affected by the quake, with at least 2 million needing tents,
water, food and medicines over the next three months.
The United Nations Children's Fund said more than half a million
children were being vaccinated to prevent measles outbreaks. Around
1.7 million children remain in urgent need of humanitarian aid in
the worst-hit areas, it added.
(Additional reporting by Krista Mahr and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi;
Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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