Earthquake toll hits over 6000
Published on: Apr 29, 2015 @ 15:38
The death toll in Saturday’s devastating earthquake and the aftershocks across the country has crossed the 6,000 mark.Giving this information Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal Bam Dev Gautam said that more than 11,000 people have been injured in the quake.
The National Emergency Operation Centre under the Home Ministry said more than 10,224 have been injured in the quake. In the Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu district recorded 1,039 deaths followed by Bhaktapur district 250 and Lalitpur district 159. Fifty one deaths have been reported in the eastern region, 3,098 in central region, 407 in western region and 2 mid-western region.
Nepal Army spokesman Brigadier General Jagdish Chandra Pokhrel said, primary goal is to rescue the affected people. He said, there is still hope to find many people alive and efforts are being made to reach them. Helicopters belonging to Nepal Army and Indian Air Force continued to carry out sorties in calamity hit districts but work was affected in the afternoon due to rain. Pokhrel said, certain areas are very remote and efforts are being made to send troops down there. He said, Nepal is thankful its good friend India for providing the aviation support to reach areas which are not accessible by road. Pokhrel informed that besides India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh and eight other countries have also sent their personnel to help in search, rescue and relief efforts. He said, removing the huge amount of debris from collapsed structures in Kathmandu Valley to search for survivors is becoming an uphill task as there is not enough equipment for such large scale operations.
Information minister and government spokesperson Minendra Rijal said, besides affecting rescue and relief work there is fear that rain might trigger landslides and avalanches in hig
her reaches to cause more devastation. Millions of people are still living in the open without basic amenities like drinking water and food. Power and telephone connectivity has been restored in some areas but most parts are still without electricity.Once the rescue operations are complete, the focus would shift to provide relief to those affected in 29 districts.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has activated its tracing mechanism to enable it find those separated from their loved ones by the disaster. Its web service dedicated to this activity is http:// familylinks.icrc.org/ nepal-earthquake/. It is both in English and Nepali languages. On the provision of these information, the Red Cross Movement will endeavor to locate those registered as missing and post the results on the website.