Four stranded South Africans walk to safety in Nepal

FOUR South Africans stranded in a Nepali nature reserve have walked to safety and will be bussed to Kathmandu on Thursday afternoon.

According to Pradeep Kumar Shrestha‚ honorary consulate to South Africa in Nepal‚ the four - Kate Ahrens‚ Mike Sherman‚ Irma Fourie and Heinz Hochrinner - were meant to be airlifted out of Langtang on Thursday morning‚ but they instead walked to a nearby village with other tourists.

They had been stranded since saturday when a massive earthquake struck the region.

"Getting a helicopter…was a big problem. We heard that they‚ four of them with other tourists‚ walked to Nuwakot and a bus will bring them here. It looks like they are safe‚” said Shrestha.

Meanwhile‚ the doctors of the Gift of the Givers’ disaster response team were officially registered with the health ministry‚ following an initial delay with obtaining medical accreditation‚ and would "commandeer" a hospital and would go to there to set up on Thursday afternoon.

"We have a 300-bed hospital. We're going to commandeer it. That hospital is ours now. All the patients [that are brought into] the airport will be taken to the hospital. Also‚ all our rescue teams that go out‚ whatever patients they bring in will come to us‚" said Dr Pramod Gongal.

– Sunday Times, RDM News Wire