Boy rescued in Kathmandu 5 days after quake devastated Nepal
30 Apr 2015
Rescuers pulled out a 15-year boy from the rubbles five days after he was trapped in a building collapse, even as Nepal struggled to cope with the devastating earthquake that ravaged the country.
Nepal's Armed Police Force managed to save 15-year-old Pema Lama from the collapsed ruins of Kathmandu's Hilton Hotel. Officials said the chances of finding more survivors were remote even as the death toll reached 5,858.
Aid, meanwhile, started reaching the hinterlands of Nepal although the extent of loss of life and damage to property in the villages nestled among mountains and foothills has yet to be assessed.
Many Nepalis have been sleeping in the open since Saturday's quake. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged.
It said eight million people have been affected, with at least two million in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months.
Anger over the pace of the rescue has flared up in some areas, with Nepalis accusing the government of being too slow to distribute international aid that flooded into the country.
It has yet to reach many in need, particularly in areas hard to access given the quake damage and poor weather.
Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated have also surfaced. In Langtang valley, where 150 people are feared trapped, a helicopter pilot was taken hostage by locals demanding to be evacuated first, one report said.
The rescue of Pemba Tamang was a rare bit of good news in a city that has known little but despair since the earthquake hit Saturday, leaving more than 5,500 people dead across this poverty-wracked Himalayan nation.
Disaster relief operations in Nepal by the Indian Army as part of the National response continued. The command and control centers at Kathmandu and Pokhara are being augmented by additional officers. Army Relief Convoy moving by road is likely to reach Gorkha tomorrow.
