A miraculous pullout of a 15- year-old boy alive today lifted the gloom on a chilly and rainy day as three fresh aftershocks kept people on edge in Nepal, five days after the country was devastated by a powerful earthquake.
A long silence followed by a round of cheers went up when Pemba Lama was brought out of the rubble of a seven-storey building, rekindling hopes of finding more survivors while relief operations were hit due to rains and tremors measuring between 3.9 and 4.7 on the Richter Scale.
Dust-covered and dazed Lama, a resident of Nuwakot, was brought to safety after five hours of rescue operation and shifted to a hospital. The teenager was the latest miracle survivor to be rescued after a four-month-old baby who was pulled out alive from under the rubble in Bhaktapur town.
Rescuers are still struggling to reach remote mountainous areas in the Himalayan nation, where relief efforts have been hampered by heavy rain and landslide even as global help poured in following the quake that has killed nearly 6,000 people and injured at least 11,000 others.
Helicopters could not fly due to the heavy rains in the morning as anger and frustration mounted in the country that has witnessed scenes of people clashing with police and seizing food and water supplies.
Officials have warned that they faced problems in getting aid into the country and then delivering it to some of the remote communities in desperate need