Rescuers pull 101-year-old from Nepal quake rubble

Rescuers in Nepal pulled a 101-year-old man from the rubble of his home Saturday, a day after the country's government ruled out the possibility of finding any more survivors of last week's devastating earthquake.
 
Sky News, citing a local police official reported that the man, identified as Funchu Tamang was recovering from minor injuries in a hospital northwest of Kathmandu.
 
"He was brought to the district hospital in a helicopter. His condition is stable," Arun Kumar Singh said. "He has injuries on his left ankle and hand. His family is with him."
 
The Hindustan Times reported that Tamang was located by a team of Nepalese soldiers and policemen. Arun Poudel, the deputy superintendent of police in Nuwakot, Tamang's home district, said the centenarian had been trapped under the veranda of his house when the magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit.
 
"We were lucky to have found him alive," Poudel said.
 
The paper quoted Tamang as saying he survived being trapped by eating flour and drinking water from containers that were lying near him.
 
"Those who should have survived lost their lives and someone like me who is near death has found a new life," he said.
 
Tamang was in his 20s the last time Nepal experienced a comparable earthquake, in 1934. On that occasion, the magnitude-8.0 earthquake killed an estimated 10,600 people.
 
"I was sleeping inside the house when the 1934 earthquake struck. No one from our village died then. But this time we lost so many," Tamang said. The Hindustan Times reported that  27 people had been confirmed dead in Tamang's home village of Khimtang. 
 
Three other people were found alive over the weekend as workers continued the grim task of recovering victims of the April 25 earthquake that killed over 7,000 people and has left hundreds of thousands homeless. The death toll is expected to rise as rescue teams from 20 countries locate more victims.
 
Nepal Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said aid workers still had not reached many remote villages which are believed to have been heavily damaged or destroyed by the temblor.
 
"There are still villages where we know that all houses have been destroyed, but have not yet been able to reach," Mahat said. "The aftershocks have not receded and we expect the final casualty numbers to climb much higher."

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