Nepal quake: 1,000 EU citizens still unaccounted for, says envoy

 

Officials are struggling to locate 1,000 EU citizens who remain unaccounted for in Nepal, nearly a week after an earthquake that killed more than 6,000 people.

An EU official said most are thought to have been trekking near Mount Everest or in the remote Langtang mountains.
Many are hoped to be alive in isolated areas cut off by the quake.
Nepal has called for more foreign help, particularly aircraft, as survivors grow desperate for humanitarian aid.
Nepalese authorities say the death toll from Saturday's 7.8-magnitude quake could rise to 10,000, with uncertainty still surrounding the fate of thousands of people in remote mountain communities.
Nearly 14,000 people were injured in the disaster. Relief and rescue teams have reached most areas but many people remain in urgent need.
At Kathmandu's historic Durbar Square, soldiers and volunteers form human chains to remove the debris, brick by brick.
The bricks come from temples and other historic buildings levelled by the earthquake. Many are very old and are being stored so that they can be used to rebuild these ancient sites.
The soldiers are joined by aid workers - but also tourists. One French visitor said she "just wanted to help". But it's an ad hoc approach which characterises the entire relief operation.
I met rescue and medical teams from France and China. After wandering around they left. "We don't know what we are supposed to be doing," one French rescue worker told me.
Their services are required in the remote villages where many are in urgent need of assistance - but they are stuck here in the capital because no-one is telling them what to do.

The quake struck during peak trekking season in a country popular with mountaineers. Twelve EU citizens are known to have died so far. Some of them were killed by avalanches, triggered by the quake, that struck base camp below Mount Everest.
The EU envoy to Nepal, Rensje Teerink, said the authorities did not know the whereabouts of some 1,000 other EU citizens.
"They are missing but we don't know what their status is," she told reporters in the capital, Kathmandu.
Another EU official, speaking to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, said most of the missing were likely to be found safe.
Many backpackers do not register with their embassies when they arrive in Nepal, which has made it harder to trace them, Reuters news agency reports.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32551499