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Nepal observes national day of mourning for victims of flash flood disaster

World · 2 min · 3h ago · BBC, The Guardian
Nepal observes national day of mourning for victims of flash flood disaster
Photo: BBC ↗
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Nepalis observed a national day of mourning for the victims of the flash flood on Monday, lighting candles to mark the last day of the traditional 13-day Hindu mourning period.

While flags were flown at half mast, commemorations were scaled back as rescue teams continue to search for survivors. Candlelight vigils were planned for Monday evening.

At least 1,287 people are known to have died after a flash flood, believed to have been triggered by a glacial collapse, swept through villages in a Himalayan valley along border between Nepal and Tibet.

Almost two weeks later, more than 5,000 people are still missing.

Phanindra Paudel of the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) told the Reuters news agency that there would be "no government programmes organised as the rescue and search operation is still going on in the flood-hit areas."

Nepal's president, Ram Chandra Paudel, toured areas devastated by the floods on Monday, an aide told Reuters.

The home ministry said that government offices, as well as missions abroad, would fly the national flag at half mast to mark the final day of the mourning period.

Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, who is advising Nepali teams, said in an update on X that the operation meant facing "multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved."

Four people have been rescued in recent days, three at hydropower stations or tunnels.

On Saturday, a 64-year-old Nepali woman was pulled from her buried house on Saturday, more than 10 days after a wall of ice, rock and mud partially buried her house in the Nuwakot district.

She was discovered alive on the fourth floor of the building by Nepal's Armed Police Force and airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment.

On Sunday rescue workers in China recovered twelve bodies in the Nepal-Tibet border, using excavators, shovels and ground penetrating radar at the site.

At least 5,083 people are still missing in Nepal. On the Tibetan side, the death toll reported by Chinese media on Friday was 31, with 531 people unaccounted for.

Read the full story at BBC ↗ · The Guardian ↗

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The thread

  1. Nepal holds day of mourning for more than 1,300 killed in floods
  2. British aid worker mistakenly identified as a survivor of Nepal-Tibet disaster
  3. Why Nepal's rare, deadly flood struck without warning