Nepal quake death toll tops 6,000 with thousands unaccounted for
NEWS DESK (DİHA) - The death toll in the massive earthquake which struck Nepal on Saturday has passed 6,000, and many thousands are still unaccounted for.
A home ministry official said the 6,134 fatalities had been confirmed, with 13,906 injured. Although the battered south Asian nation celebrated the rescue of two people pulled out alive from the wreckage of buildings in Kathmandu on Thursday, the sheer extent of the destruction is becoming clear.
Thousands of villages have been devastated, with up to 90% of clinics and schools in some districts rendered unusable. Ram Sharan Mahat, the Nepalese finance minister, said it at least $2bn would be needed to rebuild homes, hospitals, government offices and historic buildings and he appealed for help from international donors. “This is just an initial estimate and it will take time to assess the extent of damage and calculate the cost of rebuilding,” Mahat said.
Other estimates have been higher. Huge numbers of ancient monuments and important cultural buildings will also need to be restored, if they are not demolished. Major palaces in Kathmandu have been damaged and cracked.
Hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by the quake, which registered 7.8 magnitude, are yet to receive aid because of logistic bottlenecks, poor infrastructure and a chaotic government response.
Two pulled from rubble five days after quake
woman has been pulled from the rubble of a small hotel destroyed by the powerful earthquake that shook Nepal five days ago, hours after a teenage boy was pulled from the wreckage of a seven-storey Kathmandu building.
Krishna Devi Khadka was freed on Thursday after rescuers in the capital, spent 10 hours digging her out of rubble, said emergency worker Roman Schulze. Earlier, a 15-year-old named Pema Lama was pulled to safety as officials said the chances of finding more survivors were fading.
(nt)
