Nepal earthquake: 10 Irish citizens still missing

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said that it has yet to make contact with 10 Irish citizens following an earthquake in Nepal. However, the department said that there were as yet no Irish fatalities reported in the disaster.

The latest estimate from the department indicates that some 150 Irish citizens have been identified in the region and that the “vast majority” had been contacted.

In a statement, the department said: “Some of these people may be in remote areas where communications would be sporadic at the best of times, which means it is taking time to formally account for all Irish citizens.

“There are no suggestions at this stage of any Irish fatalities. One Irish citizen has been injured but is stable, and is due to be medevaced when flight clearance permits.”

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said that department officials are "coordinating closely with EU colleagues, including those with embassies on the ground".

Mr Flanagan said: "Commercial flights are operating out of Kathmandu so, in common with our EU partners, we are advising citizens who wish to leave to make arrangements to do so by commercial means."

Red Cross list

There is still at least one Irish person in Nepal on the separate Red Cross missing list who has not been accounted for since a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Saturday left more than 4,000 dead.

Thomas Drumm (55) from Monaghan was travelling in the Himalayas at the time of the earthquake and has yet to make contact, according to the Red Cross website and his cousin, David Drumm.

The missing list, which is available on the Red Cross website, lists people in the area as “Missing”, or “I am alive”, in cases where the person verifies they are safe.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning, Mr Drumm said that he had not heard from Thomas since an email he received last Wednesday.

There had been some confusion surrounding reports of missing Irish people as communications in the stricken areas are slow. It had been previously reported that Thomas had been confirmed as safe, but Tuesday’s interview confirmed that he is still not accounted for.

Mr Drumm said his cousin’s mobile phone is dead. “He said that he was in Nepal and moving around the Himalayas. I don’t know how long he had been in Nepal at that stage, but he was staying there until his return to the UK,” he said.

He said Thomas is due back to his home in Brighton in the UK on May 8th.

“If I get any trickle of good news at all, we can let the system know that he’s safe and well. We’re hoping for that. As time goes on, we’re getting very anxious,” he said.

On Tuesday, Clodagh Sands, whose brother Ciaran Sands (55) had not made contact since the earthquake, confirmed that he is alive and well.

In a post on her Facebook page, Ms Sands said: "Good news, Ciaran got a message out from Nepal, he is alive and well, no further details available. Thank you all for your support."

Exact number

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Red Cross website works on a different mechanism to the one used by the department and that an exact number of missing individuals is not currently available.

“It will take the department a few days to contact the people on the list,” she said. “The number is changing all the time.”

Other Irish people who were listed as unaccounted for by the Red Cross but are understood to have since made contact with their families include:

Sinéad Nic Cionna (31) from Monaghan; Alex Murphy (25) from Dublin and her boyfriend, Arron Conran (22); Clíodhna Cork (21), Dublin; Darine Flanagan (22), Galway; Emmet Gallagher (33), Dublin; Jacqueline Bushe (54), Donegal; Niall Kavanagh (54); Nicholas Cooney (71), Drogheda; Oliver McKevitt (24), Northern Ireland and Pat Loughran (66), Dublin.