At least 39 foreigners are still missing even as the bodies of 20 people who died in the devastating earthquake that hit Nepal in April were recovered from the northeastern region of Langtang, Nepal’s Interior Ministry said on Monday.
“The bodies are not in condition to be identified; all we can say right now is that we have recovered 20 bodies that were swept away after the earthquake,” ministry spokesperson Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told EFE, adding that the bodies were recovered “a couple of days ago.”
Dhakal said three bodies have already been sent to Kathmandu and the other 17 will reach on Tuesday for DNA testing.
Around 200 people, at least 100 of them foreigners, were buried in an avalanche of rocks, snow and mud that followed the earthquake on April 25.
A total of 159 people, 39 of them foreigners, who were at the Everest base camp and Langtang, are still missing.
Most of the missing foreigners are from the United States, Belgium, Canada, France and China, besides four Spaniards, who went missing in Langtang.
Shiva Ram Gelal, head of Rasua district, where Langtang is located, told EFE residents of the area have claimed the bodies are those of their relatives.
“We have decided to send them to Kathmandu for DNA testing so that we can verify their identity,” Gelal said.
Police spokesperson Kamal Singh Bam told EFE they are taking the help of social networking sites to locate the missing people.
“Some foreigners returned home by themselves and contacted us through social networks, so we are using these platforms to find more information,” Bam said.
According to official figures, the earthquake in April and its aftershocks, two of them measuring over 7.0 on the Richter scale, left 8,898 people dead and 22,309 injured.
Moreover, 602,257 houses and buildings were completely destroyed and another 285,099 suffered damages.
Monday 3 August 2015
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