A Nepalese boy stands outside his village with a signboard asking for help in Pauwathok village, Sindhupalchok district, Nepal, on May 2.(Photo: Manish Swarup, AP)
Three survivors have been found in a mountainous village in Nepal, several days after after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck the country, an official said Sunday.
Government administrator Surya Prasad Upadhaya told the Associated Press that two men and a woman were rescued near Syauli village and have been taken to a nearby military hospital for treatment.
It's not clear what day the survivors were pulled from the rubble. An initial AP report misinterpreted the time of the rescue, according to AP.
Earlier Sunday, Nepal shut its only international airport in Kathmandu to large planes carrying aid because the runway cannot handle the traffic, the AP reported. Officials said medium and small aircraft will still be allowed to land.
Authorities on Sunday said the death toll has reached 7,057.
The toll includes 51 bodies discovered over the weekend in the Langtang Valley on a popular trekking route 35 miles north of Kathmandu, the AP reported. Six foreigners including a French and an Indian national were found, as well as Nepalese guides, hotel owners, workers and porters, according to the agency.
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The news comes after United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told Agence France-Presse of her concerns that customs controls are slowing down the delivery of humanitarian aid to the country.
Some people in remote areas say that relief has yet to reach them, amid reports that aid is piling up at the Kathmandu airport.
Amos told the AFP that she raised the issue with Prime Minister Sushil Koirala on Saturday, reminding him that Nepal had signed an agreement with the U.N. in 2007 allowing simpler and faster customs clearance for aid.
"He has undertaken to ensure that happens, so I hope that from now we will see an improvement in those administrative issues," Amos told the news agency.
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Nepal lifted import taxes on tarpaulins and tents Friday but home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal said all goods coming in from outside the country had to be inspected, the BBC reported.
"This is something we need to do," he said, according to the broadcaster.
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