NSC to send second flight if Malaysians still stranded in Nepal

Its secretary Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab said NSC was still continuing efforts to trace them.

"NSC will send a courtesy flight there (Nepal) if there is such a need...as far as I know there are no more Malaysians in Kathmandu but outside Kathmandu it is understood there are still some Malaysians," he said when met by reporters at the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Subang, early today.

He urged any Malaysians who were still in Kathmandu to immediately register with the Malaysian Embassy to return to the country.

So far, he said the NSC and RMAF had brought back 104 Malaysians, who arrived ar the Subang RMAF at 12.30am Wednesday morning.

Thajudeen said they departed from the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu yesterday in a C-130 RMAF aircraft.

"The 104 Malaysians comprised two infants, six children below aged 12, 43 women, including a pregnant woman and 53 men," he said.

The aircraft had earlier left for Kathmandu carrying 30 Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) personnel and 20 medical officers from Mercy Malaysia and Malaysian Red Crescent to assist in search and rescue efforts for the earthquake victims.

The earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit Pokhara, a city near Kathmandu, at 2.56pm (Malaysian time) on Saturday with several aftershocks felt.

The earthquake has been described as the worst in Nepal's history for the past 81 years.