According to a European Union official, some 1,000 Europeans in Nepal are unaccounted for. Amongst these, most of the people were tourists and trekkers who do not register with their embassies making it near impossible to track.
The EU’s Ambassador to Nepal, Rensje Teerink, said: “Of course, it doesn’t mean they are dead. It just means they haven’t reported back.”
Still recovering from the massive earthquake which shook the Asian country last week, life in Nepal is yet to normalise.
Causing widespread destruction, the magnitude 7.8 earthquake has claimed over 6,000 lives and the death toll is expected to rise as bodies are being recovered from collapsed structures.
Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian office estimated that more than 130,000 houses were reported destroyed.
At the UN compound in Nepal’s capital the UN humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, told reporters that aid workers face “immense logistical challenges” trying to get aid to mountainside villages where helicopters couldn’t land and where some roads were destroyed.
