5 days on, teen saved in miracle rescue

Kathmandu: In a rare moment of joy in quake- hit Nepal, rescuers on Thursday 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. All foreign rescue teams, except a team from Britain, are deployed in Kathmandu Valley, media reported. A local public health worker said the government's delay in providing direction and information is impeding urgent relief efforts in remote districts.

Minendra Rijal, Nepal's minister of information and communications, said relief operations were underway but that much more needs to be done.

"Life is returning to normal, but it will be some time to be completely normal.

"We have still not been able to properly manage to provide relief," he said. Foreign assistance has poured in but aid organisations said capacity constraints at the capital's single-runway airport, fuel shortages, quake damage to roads and the mountainous country's difficult terrain were all impeding efforts to help quake victims. Hospitals in the capital were overflowing with patients, and doctors said they needed medicines and surgical equipment.

And large numbers of people, afraid to go back into quake-damaged buildings, were living outdoors. "We are living in hell," said a Nepalese man, who expressed anger at how his government has responded to areas devastated by the earthquake. "We will die if there is no help from the government or other organisations," another man said.

Despite their efforts to reach affected areas, relief works have been held back by the lack of coordination among the authorities, and the problem has exacerbated due to bad weather and geographical hindrances.

Water and sanitation have emerged as major concerns in the country that is now grappling with a new challenge of how to deal with post-disaster diseases like diarrhoea and respiratory infections.

The rescuers gave yet to reach some of the worst-hit villages in Dhading, Sindhupalchok, Kavre and Nuwakot, among other districts.