340 Spanish nationals stranded in Nepal while 60 Brits missing

FOREIGN MINISTER of Spain, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and sought New Delhi’s assistance to help evacuate Spanish nationals from the earthquake-hit Nepal.

An Airbus 310 that brought Spanish Foreign Minister to neighbouring India for an official visit has not been able to fly out of New Delhi to collect them because it has not received authorisation by Nepalese officials to land at Tribhuvan Aiport in Kathmandu, officials said.

Garcia-Margallo, who is on a previously planned official trip to India, said: “I am not leaving here until all the Spaniards who want to leave the country can do so.”  

A British aircraft was also reportedly unable to land at Kathmandu because another plane was parked on the airport’s only runway.

With the death toll now in excess of 4000, one aid worker told the guardian that he expects the figure could to rise to 15,000.

Helicopters have started to rescue up to 150 mountaineers stranded on Everest above an ice fall caused by the earthquake. An additional 61 were injured in the avalanche and an unknown number are still missing.

The BBC reports that dozens of British and Irish people have still not been traced following Saturday’s devastating earthquake. The Red Cross had said 90 Britons were missing, but 30 have since been located, and the UK Foreign Office said it was not aware of any deaths or injuries.

The UK’s leading aid agencies have announced a joint appeal to raise money to help survivors, as an RAF plane carrying UK aid supplies and British army troops, including Gurkha engineers, has left for Nepal.