The death toll from the Bhotekoshi flash floods in Nepal has reached 1,010, and about 4,000 people are still missing. Of those, 590 are foreign nationals from 39 countries. Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave the figures on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri told a Kathmandu press briefing that tunnel specialists from India and China are now working beside the Nepal Army. Workers are feared trapped inside several hydropower tunnels. “Our immediate national priority remains clear: to save lives, locate those who are missing, rescue survivors, provide urgent relief, and ensure that all affected people, both Nepali and foreign nationals, receive appropriate assistance and support,” Chhetri said.
India has sent a 24-member team, split into two units, to the Chilime and Langtang hydropower sites. China’s nine-member team is at Upper Trishuli 3A. South Korea has also mobilised a specialised team; Chhetri did not say where it is working. Seoul told Reuters that nine of its nationals who worked at a hydropower project are missing, and that it will send a 44-member relief team to the Rasuwa region.
More than 21,000 soldiers and police from the Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force are deployed along the affected corridors. The ministry says over 11,800 people have been rescued, among them 324 foreigners. Five of those foreigners remain in direct contact with the authorities.
Identifying the dead
So many bodies have been recovered that outside forensic help was needed. An Indian DNA team of 19 has been in Nepal since August 29. A four-member Chinese forensic team arrived on Tuesday, and officials are arranging for a Disaster Victim Identification team from Singapore.
Chhetri said that when remains cannot be identified or kept safely, they have been buried temporarily once forensic work, DNA sampling included, is done. The aim, he said, is to let families receive the remains for final rites after identification.
Relatives of the missing are asked to go to the Nepal Police Hospital in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, or to the nearest District Police Office. Families abroad can build DNA profiles in their own countries and email them to Nepal Police.
Nepal has also asked partners for equipment: LiDAR, belly bridges, freezers, DNA testing kits, load carriers, body bags, high-capacity drones and gene sequencers. Last week the country had turned down foreign help for general search and rescue, saying it needed only specialist services and advanced technology.
Digging at the tunnels
The disaster management authority says at least 639 people remain stuck in devastated hydropower stations, which are now the focus of the effort. Prime Minister Balendra Shah said 279 workers have been pulled out so far.
The conditions are rough. Asish Gurung, a mountain guide helping at the tunnels, told Reuters that at the Trishuli plant “it is not humanly possible to go into the tunnel.” Two excavators were on site, he said; one was broken and the other under repair. “There may be about 500 people trapped inside,” he said.
The ministry thanked India, China, Japan, the United States, the UAE, South Korea and other partners for relief supplies and funding. Shah said more than $42 million in aid had arrived.
Sources
- Nepal flash floods: Specialised teams from India, China, S Korea join Nepal Army in hydropower tunnel rescue as death toll tops 1,000 – The Statesman
- Death toll in Nepal flood tops 1,000 as Nepal rescuers reach remote areas | The Jerusalem Post
