Miscellaneous
Still finding survivors
Even five days after the Great Quake, rescue teams are still pulling out survivors trapped under rubble both inside and outside Kathmandu Valley.Roshan Sedhai
A rescue team led by Armed Police Force Inspector Laxman Bahadur Basnet rescued Pemba Lama, a resident of Nuwakot, on Thursday, nearly 120 hours after he was trapped under the rubble of a building.
The 15-year-old was rescued alive from a building that had housed four different guest houses—Bhuwaneshwori, Dipawali, Hilton and New Star. Lama was working as a dishwasher in one of the guest houses, and after the quake hit and the building crumbled, he was trapped in the kitchen area. He survived inside the rubble by eating the ghee that was in the kitchen and drinking filthy water.
The rescue team was able to trace Lama when he responded to the police team’s asking if anyone was alive inside the rubble. The team then drilled a passage to get to him.
In a similar operation, a rescue team comprising Nepali security forces and Israeli personnel saved Krishna Devi Khadka in the Buspark areas nearly 125 hours after the earthquake.
An Indian search-and-rescue team had also saved Shiva Shrestha, 37, a resident of Trishuli Bazaar, Nuwakot, in an operation 98 hours after the earthquake.
And on Tuesday night, another team rescued Rishi Khanal, 27, from a collapsed hotel in Gongabu, Kathmandu. Khanal said he had survived by drinking his own urine.
Home Ministry spokesperson Laxmi Prasad Dhakal says that the teams will
continue search and rescue operations even as the government focuses on relief distribution.