Bodies of 2 Russian diplomats killed in Nepal to be transported to Russia on May 11
MOSCOW. May 8 (Interfax) - A Russian Emergency Situations Ministry aircraft will transport the bodies of two diplomats from the Russian Embassy to Pakistan, who died during an earthquake in Nepal, on May 11, Emergency Situations Ministry international operations department Deputy Director Alexander Tomashov said.
"We found the dead diplomats earlier. The identification procedure took place yesterday, and it confirmed that these were our diplomats. We are going to arrange the transportation of their bodies to Russia by our plane. The departure is scheduled for [May] 11, along with a mobile Emergency Situations Ministry crew that worked in Nepal," he said.
It was reported on Thursday that the bodies of the two diplomats from the Russian Embassy to Pakistan had been found in Nepal, after they had gone missing following the recent earthquake in the country
"The bodies have been found in the mountainous village of Langtang. It looks like they died during the first tremor on April 25. This was followed by a heavy rock slide, and this village was almost entirely buried by rocks," Azret Botashev, the press attache of the Russian Embassy to Nepal, said in a telephone interview with Interfax on Thursday.
It was reported earlier that two Russian diplomats, Alexei Lipeyev and Maria Yakovleva, had gone missing in Nepal while vacationing there. Information available indicates that they had called last time from the Langtang national park north of Kathmandu before the April 25 earthquake.
The death toll from the earthquake in Nepal has exceeded 8,400 people, and about 18,000 others have been injured.