British Army Gurkha engineers to fly to Nepal earthquake zone

British Army Gurkha engineers are due to fly to Nepal to help disaster recovery efforts as the death toll from the country’s worst earthquake in 80 years topped 4,000.

The soldiers from the renowned Nepalese brigade were boarding an RAF C-17 transporter packed with emergency shelters and solar lanterns at Brize Norton on Monday evening.

The dozen troops are expected to be followed by more Gurkha military liaison teams, as the United Nations warned a "massive" aid operation was now needed.

Remote areas of the country are still out of reach of rescuers and the extent of the destruction wrought by Saturday’s 7.9 magnitude earthquake is still becoming clear.

Justine Greening, the Development Secretary, said: “As the devastating scale of the crisis becomes clearer, we are stepping up our efforts.

“In Nepal, vulnerable people are sleeping out in the open, their homes destroyed.”

^{An RAF c-17 packed with emergency aid was due to leave Brize Norton for Nepal on Monday evening (Getty Images)}

Army sources said the troops from the Kent-based Queen’s Gurkha Engineers will join around 65 others permanently based at the brigade’s HQ in Kathmandu.

Others are on standby to deploy at short notice. One source said: “They speak the lingo and they have everything they need, from infantry to engineers, within the brigade."

Another Gurkha detachment was on Everest when the earthquake struck and has begun helping recovery efforts on the mountain after they were airlifted from Camp 1 down to Base Camp.

The 18-strong team had been hoping to be the first serving Gurkhas to reach the summit, to mark this year’s 200th anniversary of the unit’s service to the British Crown.

Aid workers said they faced "huge logistical difficulties" with road closures and lack of communication, while there were fears the lack of clean water could trigger outbreaks of disease.

Leigh Daynes, UK director of medical charity Doctors of the World, said Nepal's health system had been fragile before the earthquake.

He said: “Now hospitals are utterly incapacitated, infrastructure has been decimated and thousands of people are sleeping on the streets. With monsoon season only weeks away, this is a catastrophe of the highest order and demands an urgent medical response," he said.

“We are facing huge logistical difficulties. As well as roads being closed, aftershocks have prevented planes from landing at Kathmandu airport."

At least 40 Britons are still posted as missing by friends and relatives, but the Foreign Office said it had not received any confirmed reports of British dead or injured from the earthquake.