Post-quake renovations begin in Nepal; toll nears 7,700

Nepal on Wednesday mounted post-quake renovation works as it declared the Rastrapati Bhawan and thousands of buildings and homes unsafe for use after the devastating temblor that killed at least 7,652 people.

Eighty personnel of India’s National Disaster Response Force, which had the largest presence in Nepal after the country faced its worst disaster in over 80 years, today left the Himalayan nation, Director of the Public Relations department of Nepal Army Brig. Jagdish Chandra Pokhrel said.

Twenty-one Thai personnel, including four from the medical team, have also left, two days after Nepal asked rescue teams from India and 33 other countries to leave. Officials had said the Nepalese army and police “would now be taking over from the foreign teams” and that the exercise of foreign rescue teams leaving Nepal would be in a phased manner.

Meanwhile, the death toll due to the April 25 earthquake has reached 7,652 so far while the number of injured has shot up to 16,390, the Home Ministry said on Wednesday.

Sindhupalchowk district is the worst-hit with a total death toll of 2,939 while 1,209 died in Kathmandu. Over 2,000 engineers were deployed voluntarily to check safety of houses here in the aftermath of the temblor and have checked over 13,000 buildings so far, including the Rastrapati Bhawan.