In a rare moment of joy in quake- hit Nepal, rescuers today miraculously pulled out a 15-year- old boy alive five days after the powerful temblor struck, causing widespread devastation even as bad weather and fresh tremors hampered relief efforts in remote areas.
A large crowd cheered as rescue workers brought the boy out of the rubble of a seven-storey building in the capital, renewing fading hopes of finding more survivors in mounds of debris from Saturday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake, the worst in over 80 years.
Dust-covered and dazed Pemba Lama, a resident of Nuwakot, was brought to safety after five hours of rescue operation and shifted to a hospital. The teenager was the latest miracle survivor to be rescued after a four-month-old baby who was pulled out alive from under the rubble in Bhaktapur town.
Three fresh aftershocks, measuring between 3.9 and 4.7 on the Richter Scale, kept people on edge today as they desperately waited for buses to take them to their native villages.
Rescuers are still struggling to reach remote mountainous areas in the Himalayan nation, where relief efforts have been hampered by heavy rain and landslide even as global help poured in following the quake that has killed nearly 6,000 people and injured at least 11,000 others.
Officials have warned that they faced problems in getting aid into the country and then delivering it to some of the remote communities in desperate need.
Anger and frustration have mounted in the country that has witnessed scenes of people clashing with police and seizing food and water supplies.
As the rescue and relief operations have become centred in Kathmandu Valley, other affected districts remain in dire need of trained manpower to undertake search activities.