The specialised South African search and rescue team that scrambled to aid earthquake-struck Nepal, will leave the capital of Kathmandu on Tuesday night.

The team, made up of paramedics, firefighters and urban search and rescue technicians has been in the country for a week.

The group, funded by humanitarian aid mission Gift of the Givers, had been stationed in Kathmandu and deployed to a rural village to assist with the rescue effort.

Gift of the Givers Foundation spokesperson Ahmed Bham confirmed that the team would be flying out, after their relief operation in Nepal had come to an end.

The medical team would stay on an extra day, and remain deployed to several hospitals that had a backlog of patients injured in the quake. News24