A BUDDHIST monk from the borough who went missing after the Nepal earthquake is safe and well – his father has said.
Martin Gattuso, from Harborough Magna, has been removed from a list of missing people compiled by the International Committee of the Red Cross after he made contact to say he was safe.
Martin’s father, Michael, from Rugby, has spoken to him and he has since returned to Kathmandu after being on a retreat in the mountains when the quake hit.
He said: “He had no idea how worried we were – it’s dawning on him how lucky he was.”
Martin, a 38-year-old former ballet dance teacher who had previously worked teaching English in Bhutan, was studying meditation at a retreat in the Lapchi mountains on the border between Nepal and Tibet when the earthquake struck.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck on Saturday April 25 with the epicentre between Pokhara and the capital Kathmandu.
More than 7,500 people are now confirmed dead and more than 14,500 have been injured.
Hundreds are still missing.
