The number of EU citizens missing in the massive Nepal earthquake has fallen dramatically to around 60 from about 1,000 last week, European sources said Monday. "The number of EU citizens who are still unaccounted for has gone down to around 60. These are people who were reported to be in Nepal at the moment of the earthquake and with whom contact could not yet be established," one source told AFP.
"However, this number is going down by the hour as rescue teams are now also operating in the remote areas." Thirteen Europeans are confirmed dead, the source said. In total, EU nations are dealing with around 300 "open cases", which includes the 60 missing people, with most of the others being "safe but still in need of assistance", added the source. The EU's ambassador to Kathmandu had given the earlier figure of 1,000 missing citizens during a briefing on Friday in Nepal. The Europeans had mostly been climbing in the avalanche-hit Everest region and trekking in the remote Langtang range in the Himalayas near the epicentre of the quake that has claimed the lives of more than 7,300 people.