SINGAPORE - Four Singaporeans attempting to scale Mount Everest to fly the Singapore flag and mark SG50 are safe.

The team wrote on their Facebook page yesterday afternoon from Everest Base Camp that there were a few aftershocks which triggered a few avalanches.

Three team members - teacher Yusrina Yaakob, 28, and brothers and fellow Singapore Civil Defence Force officers Ismail Latiff, 36, and Zulkifli Latiff, 42 - have decided to stay and help other camps that are more badly affected. The fourth member, economics graduate Seumas Yeo, 26, was in Kathmandu recovering from an unrelated injury.

Two students from Nanyang Technological University are also in the Nepalese capital, working as interns for the Nepali Times newspaper. Mr Kenji Kwok, 24, and Ms Cynthia Choo, 22, were at a company retreat when they felt the tremors. "The glasses and other items in the dining hall's kitchen were wrecked, and all fell off the shelves," said Mr Kwok.

He added that for now, they are staying put for their 22-week internship, which started in January.

One tour agency told The Sunday Times that two Singaporean women were on a tour in Bhaktapur, about an hour's drive from Kathmandu, when the earthquake occurred. Mr Ganga Budhathoki, owner of Singapore tour agency Brothers International Tours and Trading, said the women were safe and staying in a hotel with his brother, a Nepalese tour guide.

"They felt tremors and it was very shaky, but thankfully nothing happened," he said.

In a Facebook post late on Saturday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he was relieved to know that the Mount Everest team was out of harm's way.

He also expressed his sympathies and condolences to the families in Nepal affected by the quake.

"In particular, the Gurkhas in our Gurkha Contingent myst be worried about families and friends back home. Our thoughts are with them," he added.