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1,000 EU citizens still 'missing' in Nepal

May 1, 2015

Rescue workers are facing "immense challenges" as the search for survivors moves outside the capital. A thousand EU citizens remain unaccounted for, mostly in the remote region of Langtang and avalanche-hit Everest.

https://p.dw.com/p/1FIs7
Nepal Chitwan Terai Himalaya Region
Image: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

Rescue workers are facing 'immense challenges' as the search for survivors moves outside the capital. A thousand EU citizens remain unaccounted for, mostly in the remote region of Langtang and avalanche-hit Everest.

Aid workers are facing "immense logistical challenges" reaching villages outside the Katmandu Valley as small roads are still closed off, Valerie Amos, the UN undersecretary general of humanitarian affairs, told reporters on Friday.

Nepal Erdbeben Verletzte in abgelegenen Dörfern
In rural villages, young Nepali citizens are the first to respond to calls for help as international organizations face challenges reaching remote areasImage: picture-alliance/dpa/N. Shrestha

"Of course we are worried that it's taking so long to get to people who desperately need aid. Some of those villages are virtually flattened. But it's very, very hard to see how we're going to get to them," said Valerie Amos, the UN undersecretary general of humanitarian affairs, on Friday.

Amos flew over affected areas in a helicopter on Friday in order to assess the situation. However, Nepal's devastated roads, especially near the epicenter, exasperate the problem of using Nepal's scant infrastructure in the countryside, where locals are "used to walking for days for what they need."

"It's not been possible to land helicopters because of the landslides in some areas, and in other areas, there simply is nowhere to land the helicopter."

EU citizens 'missing'

Bildergalerie Nepal Erdbeben Zerstörung Himalaya Bergsteigerer
Emergency response teams reacted quickly to find survivors after at least 20 died in the earthquake-induced avalance on Mount EverestImage: AFP/Getty Images/R. Schmidt

Meanwhile, approximately 1,000 EU citizens are unaccounted for in the country, most of them in the remote regions of Langtang, a popular trekking area, and Everest, struck by an avalanche, which left 20 dead in its wake.

"We know what has happened. Some of them may be dead. Some of them may just not have reported," Rensje Teerink, EU ambassador to Nepal, told reporters on Friday.

"They are missing, but we don't know what their status is."

However, Teerink confirmed that 12 EU citizens were found dead following the earthquake.

ls/jil (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)