NEPAL PM SAYS DEATH TOLL FROM THE QUAKE COULD REACH 10,000
The death toll from Nepal’s devastating earthquake could reach 10,000, the country’s prime minister has said.
It is already at more than 4,000.
It comes as aid workers plead for food and medicine for dozens of villages cut off by landslides and people frustrated by the government’s slow response use their bare hands to dig for survivors.
Landslides have blocked roads to many of the communities in rugged terrain normally only reachable by four-wheel drive vehicles.
A small number of Irish citizens are among those who have not yet been accounted for.
The UN says one million and a half people need food aid, while nothing has been heard from dozens of isolated villages for days.
Dr Unni Krishnan from the aid charity Plan International says it is a desperate situation.
“This earthquake has hit and changed the lives of at least five million people – their lives have changed forever” he said.
“We’re talking about all the…gains which this country has made in recent times has been reversed by many years” he added.
