Three rescued eight days after Nepal quake
Three people were pulled alive from the rubble of their home eight days after Nepal's devastating earthquake, as a supply logjam threatened to hamper disaster relief efforts bolstered by the arrival of US aircraft and troops.
The small-scale rescue, announced on May 3 by a home ministry official, brought fresh hope to a badly-hit district northeast of the capital Kathmandu, but about 50 bodies were also discovered on a northern trekking route obliterated by an avalanche that the April 25 quake triggered.
That increased the death toll to 7,059, and the figure was likely to rise further as an entire village was carried away by the same avalanche and scores more people - both locals and foreign trekkers - were missing, officials said.
US military aircraft and personnel were due to begin helping ferry relief supplies to stricken areas outside the capital, a US Marines spokeswoman said, after arriving in Nepal on May 3, a day later than expected.
Meanwhile United Nations Resident Representative Jamie McGoldrick said the government needed to loosen its normal customs restrictions, as criticism mounted over a pile-up of aid at Kathmandu airport, Nepal's only international gateway.
Ganga Sagar Pant, the head of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal, said the avalanche had wiped out the village of Langtang.
"All that is left is scattered belongings like bags and coats, all the houses have been thrown down the mountain," he said. "There is nothing left. I don't think anyone can survive that."
The village in the northern district of Rasuwa was on a popular trekking route and had 55 guesthouses. It was not clear how many people were there at the time of the avalanche.