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World|life|April 30, 2015 / 03:55 PM
Boy rescued in Kathmandu rubble, many villagers still stranded, death toll nears 5,500

AKIPRESS.COM - nepal-boyRescue teams toiling amid rubble left by Nepal's devastating earthquake pulled a teenage boy to safety on Thursday after he had been trapped for five days, a rare moment of joy for a country struggling to cope with the aftermath.

Officials said the chances of finding more survivors were fading as the death toll neared 5,500, reports Reuters.

But Nepal's Armed Police Force managed to save 15-year-old Pema Lama from the collapsed ruins of Kathmandu's Hilton Hotel to huge cheers from the onlooking crowd.

While rescuers were out in the capital despite heavy morning rain, helicopters could not fly to the worst-hit areas in the countryside of the Himalayan nation.

"The rain is adding to the problems. Nature seems to be against us," said Rameshwor Dandal, chief of the disaster management center at Nepal's home ministry.

Many people have been sleeping in the open since Saturday's quake. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged.

Eight million people have been affected, with at least two million in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months.

An official from Nepal's home ministry said the number of confirmed deaths from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake had risen to 5,489 by Thursday morning, and almost 11,000 were injured. More than 80 people have been killed in neighboring India and Tibet.

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