South Korean rescue team heads to Nepal base camp a day early

South Korea’s overseas emergency rescue team moved toward its Nepal search base camp a day earlier than planned after arriving in Kathmandu.

Team leader Lee Gyu-ho said the decision reflected the anguish of families who have lost contact with relatives. The 44 rescuers arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport at 6:27 a.m. local time after leaving Seoul aboard a South Korean military transport aircraft the previous night.

The team will establish its camp in Batar, a gateway to the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower plant, where nine South Koreans are believed to be missing. It brought five rescue dogs, high-resolution camera drones, equipment to detect buried people through sound and images, and thermal imaging devices.

The planned operation will last about 10 days, although officials said it could continue depending on conditions. A government rapid-response team had already conducted land searches near Ramche, about two kilometers from the hydropower plant, since Aug. 31, but had found nothing. Searchers expanded the area toward a mountainside after receiving information that it may have been an escape route during the floods.

The new rescue team will incorporate firefighters from the existing rapid-response unit. Lee said officials had received a briefing on earlier operations and had met representatives of Doosan Enerbility and Korea South-East Power to discuss the search. Future operations will be coordinated internally with the Nepalese authorities.

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Considering the painful feelings of the families of those who have lost contact, now that we have come here, we will do our best to continue the search and rescue in cooperation with the Nepalese military authorities.