KATHMANDU, May 10. /TASS/. Russian rescuers have finalised their work in Nepal and on Sunday evening will return to Moscow, head of the Emergencies Ministry’s team in Nepal Alexander Romanov told TASS on Sunday.
"Nepal’s government has announced officially the search-rescue mission in the republic is over," he said. "Still continues the humanitarian operation to eliminate consequences from the earthquake and to offer medical assistance to the local people. The Russian team, which has been working in Nepal for two weeks, on Sunday will go to Moscow by Ilyushin Il-76 planes."
He said the Russian rescuers had examined 96 buildings, worked at 59 locations, studied 109 square kilometres of territories and cleared 53,956 square metres of debris. Doctors offered assistance to almost 300 Nepalese in Kathmandu and other areas close to the capital city.
The team’s experts examined with the Struna (String) complex resistance of 29 houses and administrative buildings. Nepal’s authorities had filed ten requests with the team for examining buildings. The experts checked buildings of the Russian embassy and the Russian Centre for Sciences and Culture, a complex of buildings occupied by the Kantipur media holding, some buildings of a Buddhist temple, a secondary school and a school of fine arts and culture.
The Russian team, which arrived in Nepal on April 28, united 95 rescuers, and mountaineers who have huge experience of working in mountains, seven cynologists with dogs trained to search for missing people in debris, as well as medical staff. All the specialists had participated in many rescue missions abroad, including those after earthquakes.
A devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake, the strongest one in the past 80 years, rocked Nepal on Saturday, April 25. The epicentre was located 84 kilometres away from the capital city Kathmandu at the depth of 15 kilometres. The earthquake was followed by a series of aftershocks (90) with a magnitude ranging from 3.2 to 6.9 points.
According to the latest reports, the earthquake has claimed 8,413 lives. More than 17,576 people were injured. According to Nepal’s defence ministry, the quake ruined 140,000 dwelling houses and damaged 140,000 more. The earthquake triggered snow slides at the world’s highest Mount Everest, burying about 80 climbers. Earth tremors were felt in the Indian capital New Delhi and in its eastern, northern and north-eastern states, where about 70 people were killed and more than 250 injured, in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.