AN ARMED forces charity has amassed more than 1,000 bags of clothing ready to send to victims of the Nepal earthquake.

As the humanitarian crisis in the country deepens - the services charity Ssafa, in Catterick Garrison is preparing to ship out clothing and other emergency aid.

It has collected hundreds of bags of clothing within a matter of days and hopes to have the donations in Nepal by the weekend.

Gurkha recruits from Nepal are trained at Catterick Garrison’s Infantry Training Camp, before joining regiments around the country. The town has a significant population of about 1,400 Nepalese who live and work in the town.

Ian Laws, from Ssafa, said they received 929 bags of clothing on Sunday afternoon and 180 black bin sacks of donated clothing from Le Cateau Community Primary School in Catterick Garrison.

“We’ve had three times more bags of clothing than anybody thought we would get," he said.

"We have mountains of bags. They fill two rooms in the church hall from floor to ceiling.

“We’ve had phone calls from all over the country from people wanting to help and in addition to local donations we’ve had supplies from Scotland, Carlisle and Doncaster.”

Volunteers from the Gurkha training camp in Catterick Garrison are now sorting through the donations, with the help of local Nepalese residents in the town and other helpers. They are adding the clothes to aid boxes containing tents, sleeping bags, wet weather clothing, as well as other clothing for adults and children. Mr Laws said there are still some villages in Nepal which were completely destroyed in the earthquake 17 days ago, but which have still not been reached.

The charity hopes to take up an offer of free space on a freight aircraft heading to Katmandu, from where the boxes can be distributed by aid agencies.