Nepal observes national day of mourning for flash-flood victims

Nepal observed a national day of mourning for victims of the flash flood while rescuers continued searching for survivors. Flags flew at half-mast, and public commemorations were reduced as teams worked in the affected areas.

The mourning day marked the end of the traditional 13-day Hindu mourning period. Candlelight vigils were planned for Monday evening, but the government said it would organize no official programmes while search and rescue operations continued.

At least 1,287 people are known to have died after the flood, believed to have been triggered by a glacial collapse, swept through villages in a Himalayan valley along the Nepal-Tibet border. More than 5,000 people remain missing in Nepal. On the Tibetan side, Chinese media reported 31 deaths and 531 people unaccounted for.

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There will 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 devastated areas on Monday. Four people have been rescued in recent days, including a 64-year-old woman pulled from her partially buried home in Nuwakot district more than 10 days after the disaster. Rescuers found her alive on the building’s fourth floor and airlifted her to a hospital in Kathmandu.

Rescue workers in China recovered 12 bodies on Sunday using excavators, shovels and ground-penetrating radar. Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, who is advising Nepali teams, described the operation as involving “multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved.”

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Multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved.