Up to a thousand EU citizens are among several thousand people still missing in Nepal.

Most of the missing Europeans are thought to have been around popular trekking routes in the Himalayas, where others have been airlifted out of the area.

The head of the EU delegation in Nepal, Rensje Teerink, said those unaccounted for are said to be hard to trace as they don’t register with embassies, and it’s thought some could have left the country.

“EU nationals non-accounted for – there are 1,000 – but that of course doesn’t mean that they’re dead, just that they haven’t reported back, so 1,000 unaccounted EU nationals but we don’t know what is happening to them, whether some of them may be dead, some of them may just not have reported, but that is the latest figure,” Terrink said.

Meanwhile efforts have been continuing in Bhaktapur and elsewhere to comb the ruins of wrecked buildings.

In Kathmandu until now the search teams have been looking for survivors of last Saturday’s earthqua