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Nepal earthquake 2015
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Update | Four Hongkongers missing after Nepal earthquake found safe and well

Four are among 20 Hongkongers unaccounted for after Nepal earthquake

Four Hong Kong women previously unaccounted for following the devastating earthquake in Nepal have been found safe and well. 

Julie Ng Hoi-yan, 27, Gloria Yeung Wai-yue, 25, Clara Cheung Yan-shi, 28, and Jessica Leung Yin-ting, 27, were on their way to the Mt Everest base camp when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck on Saturday. Cheung is the daughter of Christine Fang Man-sang, former head of the Council of Social Service and a cousin of former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang.

On Tuesday morning, Clement Ip, a friend of Jessica Leung's, told the South China Morning Post he received a Whatsapp message from one of the four women saying they were safe in Lobuche.

They also sent a picture of themselves.

"The signal was very weak so I'm not able to locate them in Lobuche yet, but I told them to go to a hotel there to get wifi and then we can try to send a helicopter to pick them up," Ip said.

The Immigration Department said 15 Hongkongers were still missing as of 11am on Tuesday. Another 26 were confirmed safe, it said. 

The department had so far received 41 requests for assistance from families who had lost contact with Hongkongers travelling in Nepal.

Three immigration officers arrived in Nepal on Tuesday morning to help locate the missing Hongkongers. The department said they would liaise with the Chinese Embassy, hotels and hopsitals for clues on the people's location and status.

As the death toll soared to more than 3,700 yesterday, the families of the four women - three of whom are University of Hong Kong medical students, while Leung is a lawyer - urged the city's government to help find them.

The Nepalese government confirmed 3,726 people had been killed and more than 6,500 were injured in the earthquake, the worst in the country since 1934.

A senior interior ministry official in Nepal said authorities had not been able to establish contact with some of the worst-affected areas in the mountainous nation, and warned that the death toll could reach 5,000.

The families of the missing Hongkongers made their appeal on Monday as the city's government raised its outbound travel alert to red for Nepal, meaning travellers are advised to avoid non-essential trips.

Ng's father, Ng Tat-kwong, said he last heard from his daughter at about 9pm on Saturday, hours after the quake struck. Nepal was rocked by strong aftershocks a day later.

"She [Julie] said they were all safe, but I haven't heard from them since then," Ng said.

The four were at a hotel in Dingboche, 4,400 metres above sea level, on Saturday, and were thinking of moving to Lobuche, their next destination, on Sunday. Ng said he had called the Immigration Department's hotline and urged the officers who went to Nepal to step up their search effort. "I want them to come up with a rescue plan, because it's about four lives ... And the government must make them its priority."

The four previously missing women met up in Kathmandu on April 18, and were scheduled to reach Everest base camp today. They were due to return to Hong Kong on May 8.

Clement Yip, a friend of Leung's, said he was in contact with a Singaporean woman on Twitter yesterday who told him her sister saw the four Hong Kong women at a hotel in Dingboche on Sunday morning.

Yeung's mother, Winky Yeung, said: "I am worried … they might have been staying overnight out in the wild, I think the government's priority is to [go and find them immediately]."

Meanwhile, thousands of Nepalis began fleeing Kathmandu yesterday, terror-stricken by two days of powerful aftershocks and looming shortages of food and water.

Roads leading out of the capital were jammed with people, some with babies in their arms, trying to climb onto buses or hitch a ride aboard cars and trucks to the plains.

Huge queues formed at the city's Tribhuvan International Airport, with tourists and residents desperate to get a flight out.

"I'm willing even to sell the gold I'm wearing to buy a ticket, but there is nothing available," said Rama Bahadur, an Indian woman who works in the city.

Authorities were trying to cope with a shortage of drinking water, food and electricity, as well as the threat of disease.

The United Nations Children's Fund said nearly one million children in Nepal were severely affected by the quake, and warned of waterborne and infectious diseases.

How to help


HSBC : 500-334149-010/ Hang Seng bank account: 267-175123-009/ Bank of China bank account: 012-806-00034033


HSBC: 001-6-331860/ Bank of China: 012-874-0-010515-7/ Hang Seng Bank: 284-401080-003


HSBC: 567-354014-005/ Bank of China: 012-875-0-021868-3/ Wing Lung Bank: 020-601-003-7634-8/ Bank of East Asia: 015-260-81-012100


HSBC: 018-377077-003/ Hang Seng Bank: 286-364385-005/ Bank of China: 012-883-0-002136-6

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Plea for help to find missing women
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