AN EAST Lancashire charity has sent a team of 15 people to Nepal to help with the aid effort following the devastating earthquake that hit the country over a week ago.

The 7.8 magnitude quake has led to over 5,000 deaths and has left around 7,000 injured, with a lot of information from remote villages hit by the earthquake yet to come in.

Nelson-based Muslim Global Relief (MGR) is doing its bit to help in the country, with a team arriving on the ground last week.

Muhammad Bashir, from MGR, said: “As the news of the earthquake arrived in the office of MGR, the MGR team in India of 15 was mobilised and arrived at Kathmandu to undertake its assessment on the situation and to check on the best possible route to bring aid to the those in need.

“The team arrived on Tuesday and on Wednesday distributed some aid to the people in need in Bhaktapur region.”

Further relief items were sent towards the end of last week, with MGR sending 2,000 tarpaulin tens, 2,000 food parcels, 2,000 utensil kits and 2,000 water bottles.

Mr Bashir said: “All relief items will be bought in Gorakhpur, India along with associated permits to cross the border at Siddhar Thangar border crossing, which is about a two hour journey, and from the crossing point a further six hour drive to our head office just outside Katmandu.

“The situation is similar to the Kashmir earthquake in 2005, with difficult mountainous terrain, making it difficult to reach remote areas.

“The Indian army is asking people to come off high ground to central points for ease of providing relief.”

Last week Blackburn charity the Al-Imdaad Foundation said it had also sent a team to Nepal, via Bangladesh, while Cat Spear, 43, from Ramsbottom, is also in Kathmandu as part of a 15-strong team of rescue technicians.

The UN has appealed for £274 million for its “flash appeal” to help those affected by the quake.

Money will be split between agencies helping supply food, clean water and shelter to the millions of people affected by Nepal’s worst earthquake in 80 years - the World Food Programme, Unicef, the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC)