The official statistic from last Saturday, 26th April, earthquake in Nepal has now exceeded over 7,000 deaths, according to Huffington Post and it was reported in the Malaysian Star quoting from the Head of European Union (EU) delegation that about 1,000 people from EU are missing with 12 confirmed dead.
The Himalayan region has long been a popular tourist destination and the economy of the region had largely been from tourism. Mount Everest attracts millions of visitors every year and most of the local in that regions are involved in the tourism industry.
Ambassador Rensje Teerink who is in Nepal on a fact finding mission said that only 12 persons from EU are confirmed dead but over 1,000 are reported missing and unaccounted for.
“We don’t know where they are, or they could be,” He told reporters.
The EU Ambassador acknowledged most of the unaccounted EU citizens are tourists and they were mostly in the Langtang and Lukla region, one of the worse hit areas by avalanche following the earthquake.
Langtang is a trekking region to the north of Kathmandu that was hit by a huge avalanche and mudslides, while Lukla is the jumping off point for walkers and climbers making the nine-day trek to Everest base camp.
The Malaysian Star reported that the diplomatic missions in Nepal are finding it hard to trace the missing because many backpackers do not register with their embassies when they arrive in the country.
