By Megan Titley and Saul Cooke-Black

TEXT messages and a Facebook post have brought relief to two Stroud families who feared their loved ones had been killed by the earthquake in Nepal.

After the massive earthquake devastated Nepal on Saturday morning, the families of Keith Eyles and Johanna Bohlen were terrified that they could be among the thousands dead.

But 67-year-old Keith, from Rodborough, managed to send his wife Sally Davies a text message on Saturday to say he was alive.

The parents of 23-year-old Johanna, from Stonehouse, had to wait until Monday night for news that she was alive – her name was on a Red Cross letter listing survivors which was posted on Facebook.

However, Otto and Sue Bohlen had still had no direct contact with Johanna at the time of the SNJ going to print last night, After seeing the photo of the letter on Facebook, Sue said: “It is a great relief. We are so happy.”

Johanna was on a nine day trek in the Langtang Valley, east of the quake’s epicentre, with her boyfriend Fabian Schrogl, who was also named among the survivors in the letter.

The pair left Langtang National Park on April 21 or 22, and were about three or four days into their trek, staying at tea houses, when the quake hit. It is not known where they are currently staying.

Keith had just finished a month-long holiday trekking Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, when the earthquake hit.

He was visiting his trekking guide’s family in Arughat when the quake, which registered 7.8 on the Richter Scale, flattened the village.

In the text messages he managed to send his wife, he told her that he and the 75 villagers were safe.

But with the road to and from the village completely destroyed, he had to walk for four hours and take a 10-hour bus ride to get back to the capital, Kathmandu.

Sally had checked him onto a flight which was due to leave Tribhuvan International Airport at 2.15am GMT this morning.

She told the SNJ she planned to get up at 2am this morning to check that the flight had departed and would then drive to Gatwick to meet him.

She said she was incredibly relieved that her husband was ok, and added: “I’m over the moon that he’s managed to get back to Kathmandu, I never thought he’d get out of the village without a helicopter.”

Keith, an engineer for Alvan Blanch in Malmesbury, had been in the country for a month and was always due back in the UK today.

Friends of Johanna, who had planned to spend a year travelling the world with Fabian, have taken to social media to help locate her.

School friend Hannah Fellows said: “Praying that Johanna, the biggest ray of sunshine I’ve ever met, is okay.”

Johanna’s parents Otto and Sue have created a page on Google Person Finder to seek information.

Anyone with information should visit google.org/personfinder/global/home.html and search for Johanna Bohlen.

As the SNJ went to press last night, the authorities in Nepal said the death toll had now reached 3,617.

In a statement, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: “There are several hundred British nationals in Nepal at this time of year and we expect that almost certainly some will have been caught up in the earthquakes. But at this moment we have no reports of any British nationals killed or injured.

“British Embassy staff are on the ground and have provided practical help to around 200 British nationals. Teams of consular staff have also been out scouring hospitals, hotels and areas popular with tourists looking for British nationals who may need assistance.

“Damage to communications infrastructure caused by the earthquakes is making it difficult to contact people who may have been trekking in remote areas so it may be some time before we, working with the tour companies, are able to identify who is in Nepal and to account for them.”

The Department for International Development (Difd) has fast tracked aid to the country with £3m going to partners to address immediate needs on the ground and a further £2m to The British Red Cross.

If anyone has friends in Nepal, contact SNJ reporter, Megan Titley at megan.titley@stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk or call on 01453 769423.