The death toll from Nepal’s devastating flash floods rose to 1,127 on Wednesday, while 4,858 people remain missing, as rescuers race to locate survivors and recover bodies on eight day after the Himalayan disaster, Nepal Police said.
According to the Nepal Police, 348 bodies were recovered from Chitwan, 217 from Nawalparasi East, 190 from Nawalparasi West and 155 from Nuwakot. Another 66 bodies were recovered from Gorkha, 59 from Dhading, 45 from Rasuwa and 38 from Tanahu.
Police said postmortem and legal identification procedures had been completed for 1,113 bodies, while 95 bodies had been handed over to their relatives.
Details of 911 unidentified bodies have been uploaded to the Nepal Police website to help families identify missing relatives.
So far, security forces have rescued 6,541 people from the affected areas, while search operations continued for 4,858 missing people, police said.
Authorities have deployed 7,912 police personnel to flood-hit areas for search and rescue operations, relief distribution and management of recovered bodies.
Police teams are also moving families from high-risk areas to safer locations, clearing roads blocked by debris and coordinating search, rescue and relief operations with local authorities and residents.
The flash floods, triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal on August 26.
The disaster has also left hundreds of foreign nationals missing. The missing in Nepal includes 583 foreigners from more than 30 nationalities, while 261 foreigners from 23 countries are missing in China.
Among the foreigners missing in Nepal, Indians make up one of the largest groups, with 275 Indian citizens and another 128 people of Indian origin missing, according to New Delhi. There are also 85 US citizens missing, according to the US State Department on Sunday.
Reports, including information from Nepal’s tourism authorities and embassies, said 62 Ukrainians, 51 Malaysians, 42 Australians and 33 British nationals are also missing.
In India, authorities in Uttar Pradesh said they had recovered 17 bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be victims of the floods. Indian authorities are trying to identify the bodies, and they are not included in Nepal’s death toll.
Meanwhile, Nepali families have been holding symbolic funeral ceremonies to “liberate the souls” of loved ones missing since the deadly flash floods swept away villages and homes in the Himalayan region a week ago.
Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah said the deadly Himalayan flood was “not an ordinary” event and linked the disaster to climate change, while calling for international action.
“The flood in the Bhote Koshi River in Rasuwa was not an ordinary flood,” Shah said in a social media post late Monday. “It was one of the region's major disasters, triggered by an avalanche of snow and ice in the Himalayan region,” he said.
While the exact cause of the collapse remains unclear, climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risk of such disasters. Scientists say the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range, are melting faster as global temperatures rise.
“This incident indicates that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change,” Shah said, adding, “Therefore, this region must remain vigilant.”
(With inputs from PTI, AP, AFP)
