Bodies of 2 tourists killed in Nepal quake airlifted to Russia

The bodies of two Russian tourists killed in a devastating quake in Nepal have been airlifted to Russia, Tass reports.

An Il-76 plane of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations touched down at Ramenskoye airfield outside Moscow at 18:05 Moscow time, Tass says.

Two diplomats, Alexei Lipeyev and Mariya Yakovleva, went missing during a massive quake hitting Nepal, where they had arrived for trekking in the Langtang National Park.

Rescue teams of the Russian emergencies ministry arrived to the site for a search operation. Two groups combed an area of more than 50 kilometers of mountainous terrain. It was later found out that the two missing diplomats had not been on the trekking route.

Their bodies were taken to a Kathmandu hospital from the settlement of Langtang, and they were later identified as the missing diplomats.

A devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake, the strongest one in the past 80 years, rocked Nepal on 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.

The earthquake claimed more than 8,400 lives. More than 17,000 people were injured. According to Nepal’s defence ministry, the quake ruined 191,000 dwelling houses and damaged 175,000 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.