(ANSA) - Kathmandu, April 27 - Three Italians are dead and three are missing after Saturday's earthquake in Nepal, which local police said Monday has claimed at least 3,617 lives. However, the Nepalese branch of Caritas said that the death toll from the disaster could hit 6,000. "The toll is continuing to rise steadily," director Father Pius Perumana told the Fides news agency. "We are at over 3,000 but the estimates could touch 6,000 people considering the districts hit". "There an estimated 5,000 injured and thousands have been evacuated or are homeless".
Two of the dead Italians were caught in a landslide that struck as they were trekking in the Rolwaling Valley at 3,500 metres above sea level, two of their expedition companions told ANSA in Kathmandu on Monday. The bodies of the two have been recovered, but remain at the site of the disaster, according to initial reports. Two other members of the party are in Kathmandu. Iolanda M. is in hospital with injuries, but the other person, Attilio D., is not hurt, according to the sources.
The other Italian who died was Oskar Piazza, a member of the Trentino Alto Adige Alpine Rescue, who was part of a group of cavers in Langtang, one of the Himalayan villages hit by the earthquake.
Three other members of the caver party are missing.
They are Giuseppe 'Pino' Antonini, a 53-year-old from the central city of Ancona who is an expert in cave and gorge expeditions, Gigliola Mancinelli, a 51-year-old anesthetist and fellow Ancona native and Giovanni 'Nanni' Pizzorni, a 52-year-old from Genoa, who is an experienced canyoner.
Giovanni Cipolla, a 24-year-old climber from Verona who was feared to be missing in Nepal, has phoned home to say he is safe, his aunt told reporters on Monday
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