Catastrophic flooding on the country’s border with China has left nearly 750 people dead and around 2,500 missing
A six-year-old girl has been pulled alive from beneath mud and debris in Nepal, a video circulating online appears to show, three days after catastrophic flooding swept through northern parts of the country.
The flooding began on Wednesday after an ice-and-rock mass descended into the upper Bhote Koshi River, devastating communities downstream and along the Trishuli River, destroying homes, roads, bridges and energy infrastructure. The death toll has reached 734, while around 2,500 people remain missing, according to the country’s authorities.
The missing reportedly include 589 foreign nationals, 933 employees of hydropower projects and 85 security personnel, while 242 people have been injured, according to the authorities.
The worst affected areas were Chitwan district, where 259 people died, followed by Nawalparasi East with 184 deaths and Nawalparasi West with 82, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said, adding that the identification of bodies is ongoing at 21 hospitals across the country.
Nearly 20,000 security personnel have been deployed for search-and-rescue operations. Using helicopters and ground teams, rescuers have so far saved 8,186 people, including 279 who had been trapped inside a hydropower tunnel and 227 foreign nationals, officials said.
The government has allocated more than a billion rupees (over $6.5 million) in aid for the affected areas, dispatched dozens of trucks carrying relief supplies and arranged air deliveries of food to communities cut off by the flooding.
On Saturday, the Russian Embassy in China said that eight Russians who had been in the disaster zone along the Nepal-China border were missing. Later on in the day, Nepal Tourism Board figures listed nine Russian nationals among those missing. Two have since been rescued, while seven remain unaccounted for.
On the Chinese side of the border, 16 people have died and 546 remain missing in Tibet’s Gyirong County, Chinese authorities said on Sunday. Among those unaccounted for are 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries. More than 2,100 rescue personnel have been deployed, while authorities have warned of further risks from unstable terrain and a newly formed barrier lake.
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