Australian actor starts cleanup after Nepal looting
Australian Actor Hugh Sheridan has been part of an operation to salvage art and relics from the rubble in Nepal after locals witnessed stealing by rescue crews.
He has been in Nepal waiting to be reunited with his brother, who fell out of contact after the 7.8 magnitude quake on April 25.
Nepal reports more than 6000 people are known to have died and 13,932 were injured but the government has warned that the death toll could rise to more than 10,000.
Sheridan flew from his base in Los Angeles to Kathmandu, Nepal, with his brother Tom.
"I think I booked a ticket to Nepal within half an hour of finding out."
"I'd have climbed Mount Everest to find him."
Zachary Sheridan, like so many others, was in Nepal for adventure to trek the lower reaches of the world’s highest mountain –Everest.
After the quake, communication was cut to many parts of Nepal but Zachary eventually got a message to his family via social media.
Knowing their brother was safe, Hugh and Tom set to work assisting in the cleanup in Kathmandu where many sacred temples lay in ruins.
"I just couldn’t stand around watching so I asked some of the locals if there was something I could do and they thought I was going to try and steal something, and I was like 'what are you talking about?'"
"It turns out a lot of the rescue crews that are coming in here at the moment are actually stealing."
"There’s no coordination, I don’t know what countries they are but they’ve sent in rescue crews that are taking bits of art."
Within hours, in the middle of Kathmandu, Hugh’s efforts to salvage and make safe temple artifacts buried in the wreckage grew into a major operation.
"This one guy was telling the guy that got me started and a group of tourists came and … one by one we started like a daisy chain of rock moving."
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Article: Philippa Lees
