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Australians missing in the Nepal floods: what we know so far

Pilgrims trekking to a holy site in Tibet make up the majority of Australians who have been reported missing after deadly flash floods and landslides tore through valleys on the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday. The total number of Australians missing in the disaster remained 43 on Tuesday, with most travelling with Himalayan Glacier Adventures, Kailash Journeys, and the Isha Foundation. Cara Severino, 25, is no longer included in the figure after the Sydney woman made contact with her parents, two days after she was reported missing. Across Nepal and Tibet, thousands of people have been reported missing and Nepali and Chinese authorities have confirmed hundreds have died. Here’s what we know about the Australians who remain missing. This article will be updated as more information becomes available. Venkatraman Balakrishnan and Chitra Venkatraman New South Wales couple Venkatraman Balakrishnan, 52, and Chitra Venkatraman, 46, were among 15 Australians travelling to Mount Kailash on a spiritual trip with the Himalayan Glacier Adventures tour group. Their son, Akash Venkatraman, said his parents planned to leave their riverside accommodation in Syabrubesi before it was devastated by flood waters. Muralitharan family Shylaja Muralitharan, 42, Chandresekaran Muralitharan, 47 and their children Ashwin, 14, and Aarush, 11, were also taking part in the Himalayan Glacier Adventures spiritual tour to Mount Kailash when the flood hit. The parents and two children had been training together for the long walk, Shylaja’s younger sister, Vaishnavi, said. She had lost contact with the family shortly after breakfast on the morning of the flood. Iyer family Sreedharan Iyer, 52, and Lakshmi Iyer, 50, and their adult sons Rishab Iyer, 23, and Rudhra Iyer, 20, were taking part in the spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash with Himalayan Glacier Adventures. The Iyer brothers are medical students at the University of Newcastle and members of the West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club in Sydney’s north-west. Karan Bhardwaj Karan Bhardwaj is a 40-year-old Brisbane-based member of the Royal Australian Air Force. “Karan is a dad to my beautiful seven-year-old nephew, as well as a brother, uncle and brother in law,” said his family member Jen. “He is so desperately loved by his family and right now we are desperately praying, hoping and believing that Karan is safe, alive and somehow making his way back to us.” Narayan Panthi Narayan Panthi, from Brisbane, has been listed by Nepali police as travelling with operator Kathmandu Holiday Tours and Travel. It is understood Panthi had been carrying out independent volunteer charity work in Kathmandu earlier in the week before travelling towards the border region. Panthi’s cousin, Amrit Bhusal, told Guardian Australia his family were devastated but “holding on to hope and praying for positive news”. “We are still hoping,” Bhusal said. “We are still searching. We are still praying for Narayan to come home safely.” Bhusal said Panthi was “helping disadvantaged children in Nepal reach their full potential through education”. Bharat Mangwani Bharat Mangwani, 42, was travelling with the Isha Foundation as part of a pilgrimage to Lake Manasarovar when his family lost contact with him on Wednesday morning. He was last seen at Gyirong before the group was set to depart for Kathmandu. “All of us are praying for him and hopefully he comes back to us soon,” close friend Kushagra Tiwari said. Mangwani’s family, including his nine-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, have travelled to India with a family friend, while his wife has flown to Nepal to look for him. Sumi Adhikari Sumi Adhikari, 41, was at the Gyirong Port crossing with the Isha Foundation group when the flood hit. Her husband, Nava Pandey, has travelled to Nepal seeking information about her whereabouts. “We still have no clear or official information about Sumi or the other members of her group,” Pandey said on Saturday morning. Renee Spry A Sunshine Coast disability support worker, Renee Spry has been described as a “deeply spiritual” person who travelled to Nepal on a pilgrimage. “She had two degrees, and she chose to do something that was … a completely selfless vocation. Her priority was always other people,” her sister Clair Spry said. “Every person she touched, they knew her love and kindness. She would be so uncomfortable with all this.” Clair Spry has set up a GoFundMe so her family can travel to Nepal to look for signs of Renee. Suhasini Kandimalla A mother of two from Springfield, near Brisbane, Suhasini Kandimalla was hiking with another Springfield local, according to her sister, Supreethini Kandimalla. While she was a New Zealand citizen, Suhasini had been approved for Australian citizenship, her sister said. She had planned to attend a citizenship ceremony for it to be granted soon after she returned. “I don’t know if it was a religious calling for her to do it,” Supreethini said of the Nepal trip. “But she certainly loved the treks in New Zealand too, and would go on lots of long hikes.” Reshma Patel Newcastle woman Reshma Patel, 46, was in the Isha Foundation group. She didn’t know Sumi Adhikari beforehand, but the pair had become friends on the pilgrimage, Patel’s family friend Chin Valsan says. “They were talking to each other, and they were supposed to come back on the same flight on Thursday,” he says. He describes Patel, who has two children aged 10 and 14 and works casually for Canterbury-Bankstown council, as “full of life” and a “kind soul” who loves her family and friends. Kanagamah Sundrasan The mother of two from Springfield, near Brisbane, was part of the Kailash Journey trek to Mount Kailash. Her daughter, Swaatika Kanniah, said her mother had been excited about the hike. “It was a pilgrimage, she really wanted to go and have that experience.” A photograph of her on the trip shows her smiling with five other members of the tour; all are now missing. “I feel like everyone is trying their best, but yes we don’t know much about what’s going on,” Kanniah said of the recovery efforts. Michael Keats The family of 37-year-old Michael Keats, from Mollymook in NSW, said on social media that he had died. Keats’s wife, Emily Boyd, said on Instagram on Sunday that he had been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which had been his “dream for many years”. “Mike went on a pilgrimage to Mt Kailash seeking enlightenment,” Boyd said. “There’s a bittersweetness knowing that there was nothing more that Mike wanted [than] to know God, and to merge with the divine. “He was a mystic, a medicine man, a teacher, leader, partner, father, brother, son, uncle and dearly beloved friend. He showed up for so many people in so many ways. A heart of pure gold. We love you forever and always.” On Tuesday, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the Australian government “has not yet received official confirmation of Mr Keats’ passing. He does remain unaccounted for in terms of the information we have. But … we respect the rights of the families to make the statements they have”. “Our thoughts go out to his family and to every Australian family who is hoping that the many who are missing can be located,” she said.

Turkish deep-sea search vessel joins efforts to retrieve 20 still missing after Cyprus ferry disaster

A deep-sea search and rescue vessel is on its way to Cyprus as Turkey joins efforts to retrieve the 20 people still missing after a passenger ferry capsized off the island’s northern coast. The TCG Isin will join the vast operation to find survivors after the high-speed ferry sank on Sunday barely four nautical miles outside the port town of Kyrenia. Authorities confirmed late on Monday – the first of three days of national mourning in Turkish-held northern Cyprus – that the tragedy had claimed eight lives, increasing the number of passengers still unaccounted for from 17 to 20. A total of 241 of the 267 people aboard the Filo Jet, bound for Taşucu on the Turkish mainland when it began to take on water, had been rescued, they said. Almost all were either Turkish or Turkish Cypriot. International sympathy for the victims was highlighted as the Anglo-Cypriot founder of easyJet, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, offered €260,000 (£223,000) in support for the families of the deceased and missing, in a move hailed by Turkish Cypriot officials. Visiting Kyrenia’s new port, where relatives gathered for news of loved ones on Monday, Tufan Erhürman, the self-styled state’s president, vowed search efforts would “continue with the same intensity, with no interruption, through the day and night”. The Isin, capable of searching up to 3,000 metres below the sea surface, was due to arrive on Tuesday, he said, as he comforted the families of those still missing. The ship is expected to play a vital role in recovering the ferry’s voyage data recorder, or black box, now viewed as key in deciphering the cause of a maritime disaster not seen since the breakaway territory declared independence in 1983. Turkish Cypriot officials told the Guardian it was likely “all those responsible” would be charged with gross negligence as the seaworthiness of the 26-year-old ferry was also questioned. The owners and shareholders of the privately owned company operating the passenger vessel have also been ordered to appear in court. It remained unclear whether those still missing had been trapped on board. “Nobody is saying it publicly, but the hope of any survivors being found at this point is very slim,” one official confided. “Those who weren’t rescued very likely didn’t find a lifejacket. We believe many were elderly people and mothers with babies and young kids.” In testimony – and video footage – that emerged on Monday, panic-stricken passengers could be seen desperately looking for lifejackets and screaming before the double-hulled ferry flipped over. One mother, Ayten Biçer, described feeling her 12-year-old daughter slip from her hands and disappear as the ferry capsized and sank in a matter of minutes. “She was saying, ‘Don’t let go.’ And I didn’t let go of my daughter. I swear, I didn’t let her go,” she sobbed. Two of Biçer’s other children are among the 20 still missing. The captain of the ferry and seven crew members were detained on Monday as judicial authorities launched an inquiry into the tragedy amid claims they had been among the first to abandon ship. Appearing before a local magistrate, the crew attributed the disaster to the bow of the catamaran-style ferry breaking apart in turbulent seas. But eyewitness accounts contradicted that version of events, with passengers telling officials that appeals to turn back to port had fallen on deaf ears as the ferry began to take on water. Ünal Üstel, the northern Cyprus prime minister, told reporters the Filo Jet was lying on the seabed at a depth of 514 metres and that he foresaw the Turkish salvage ship “reaching [it] tomorrow afternoon”. Boats, helicopters, aircraft and other search and rescue teams had joined the operation, he said, adding that search efforts were continuing “on a 24-hour basis”. Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when a coup aimed at union with Greece – engineered by the military junta then in power in Athens – prompted Turkey to invade and seize the island’s northern third. Ever since, as many as 45,000 mainland Turkish troops have been stationed in the north. In 1983, the territory unilaterally declared independence, but in the absence of a settlement, decades of international isolation have ensued.

Trump says US will ‘hit Iran hard’ as hostilities resume – as it happened

Our latest story on hostilities between Iran and the US is here:

Trump threatens further action as US and Iran exchange fire in new flare-up

The US and Iran have exchanged fire for the first time in a month, with missiles and drones fired at Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the strait of Hormuz, and Iran targeting US military bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in response. The US president, Donald Trump, on Monday threatened further action. The US is to trying to prise open Tehran’s grip on shipping going through the strait, which before the war accounted for a fifth of the world’s seaborne energy supply. Washington claimed that Iranian control over the waterway had been loosened by repeated US attacks on Iranian missile launchers and radars. US Central Command said it acted late on Sunday, launching the first strikes on Iran since July, after it detected the Iranians were planning to deploy fresh mines in the strait. Last week Trump claimed the US navy had cleared the strait of mines for the first time since the conflict started on 28 February, a claim the Iranians rejected as lies. In response to the US attack, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it “targeted technical infrastructure, maintenance facilities and enemy fighter jet positions at the US-operated King Hussein and al-Azraq airbases in Jordan” with ballistic missiles, causing “heavy damage”. The UAE defence ministry said it intercepted a drone over its territorial waters. Trump responded to the Iranian reprisals by telling Fox News: “We’re going to hit them hard. There will be a response.” The US president called Iran “officially a failed nation without an airforce, a navy or a currency”, adding that inflation was at 300% and its leaders were incapable of representing their country. The White House last week signalled that Trump was shelving military measures in favour of a campaign to destroy the Iranian economy by enforcing sanctions. Iranian state TV claimed the military exchanges escalated on Sunday after a tanker caught fire when hitting two Iranian naval mines while attempting to pass through the southern side of the strait close to Oman. Officials later said Iran had targeted three ships trying to navigate the southern route that Tehran says is unauthorised. The IRGC warned that other ships violating ⁠its rules would face the same fate and said compliance with its regulations ‌for passage through the strait was mandatory. However, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, in a bilateral meeting on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan on Monday that continuing the war was not in Iran’s interest, adding he was still ready to implement the memorandum of understanding with the US that Pakistan had mediated in June. The Iranian currency was under renewed pressure on Monday and the inflationary impact of its rapid depreciation is causing growing concern to MPs. Iran and Oman last week reached a verbal agreement on a new single temporary route for shipping through the strait in which Oman retains controls on shipping in Omani waters. One western diplomat familiar with the talks said the message had got through to Washington that this bilateral agreement would not be enough for Iran to open the strait and that to do so would at least require the US to end its blockade of Iranian oil exports, something Trump is not currently prepared to do. “There are many in Iran determined to torment Trump right up to the end of his presidency,” the western diplomat said. “We are stuck.” He said some oil was getting through but not very much. The latest fighting broke out late on Sunday with the US claiming it attacked Larak Island in the strait. A US official said: “I can confirm that earlier today US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island. Islamic ⁠Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait of Hormuz.” The IRGC said the US attack had killed three soldiers and wounded two citizens. Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted the IRGC as saying its air defences shot down a US MQ-9 drone over the strait, causing it to crash ‌into Gulf waters. The US said all missiles fired towards US forces in Jordan had been intercepted with no significant impact. The White House claim that the US now controls the strait and ships are free to navigate its waters is heavily contested. Tanker Trackers, an independent tracking agency, said on Sunday: “Past seven days daily average of crude oil exports via the strait of Hormuz was 3.8m barrels per day. During the formal ceasefire period (which in effect only lasted for 25 days), it was 9.8m.” The agency said Iranian crude exports had been at zero for some time. A meeting of G20 finance ministers in the US is likely to lead to a clash over American demands that more countries impose sanctions on Iran or face punitive action by Washington. The German finance minister, Lars Klingbeil, who is facing difficult regional elections, is to urge the US to bring the conflict to a diplomatic end, pointing to the war’s inflationary impact. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, echoing Trump, claimed on Monday the resumed exchanges of fire showed Iran was “lashing out” because the fresh sanctions were taking a heavy toll on its already battered economy. “They’re taking it very seriously ... they’re in shock at the state of their ‌economy,” Bessent told reporters at the G20 finance ministers ‌meeting in North Carolina. “I would think that they are lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically.” China, a key Iranian customer for its oil, has said it opposes the new US sanctions campaign. In Kyrgyzstan, Pezeshkian will be looking for concrete assurances from the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, that he will not allow the US to spread economic chaos through Iran.

Nepal rescuers race to reach hundreds feared trapped in hydropower tunnels

Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 missing hydropower workers, hundreds of whom are feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of 12 hydropower projects in Nepal after the devastating flash floods, the ⁠country’s disaster management authority has said. The death toll from the ⁠unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud and debris on Wednesday last week has risen to 939 people, with 16 more dead reported in Tibet. More than 4,400 are missing on the two sides of the border. About 500 of the missing hydropower workers at projects damaged by the flooding in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts are thought to be trapped in tunnels built to control the flow of water. As rescue efforts drag on, experts fear the chances of finding survivors in tunnels are diminishing as oxygen levels fall. Some workers called for help when flooding started on Wednesday and those who had managed to escape tunnels said many of their colleagues were still trapped, said Mohan Kumar Dangi, the president of the Nepal Independent Power Producers’ Association. Rescue efforts have been complicated by difficult terrain, persistently high flood waters and difficult weather. With more than 40 bridges destroyed, rescuers are relying on helicopters, while India and China are sending prefabricated truss bridges to help restore access. The swollen Trishuli River has also continued to change course unpredictably, making planning a challenge. Areas that were dry one day are flooded the next, and further floods are a constant concern. Hundreds of bodies, many unidentified, that were swept down the mountains by the torrent, have been buried in shallow graves after DNA testing on the plains ⁠of the Himalayan region. Nepali officials said on Monday that the focus was on reaching the 933 people missing from ‌hydropower plants. “A large amount of debris has been deposited and that is posing us a big challenge to open the tunnels,” the Nepal army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told Reuters. About 250 people were rescued from the Upper Trishuli hydroelectric project over the weekend, and army engineers began blasting operations at the site to rescue another 42 workers thought be missing. The damage to hydropower infrastructure is estimated to have taken 700 megawatts out of service, about 10% of the country’s power capacity. Pictures and videos shared by rescue teams ⁠showed earth-moving equipment shovelling mud to try to reach the tunnels. Ashish Gurung, who normally works as a guide, was among the rescuers. “There is just mud everywhere,” he said. “Inside the tunnel it was worse. It’s so difficult to move, the mud is so deep.” His team was trying to access the Chilime hydropower plant in Rasuwa, one of the worst-hit areas. At least eight people are believed missing there, and an Indian team is working alongside the Nepali army using pumps and excavators to locate them. The Nepali prime minister, Balendra Shah, said rescue efforts were “challenging due to adverse weather, difficult terrain and ongoing risks.” Gurung said mountaineers were improvising by using planks of wood to check the depth of the mud, before using them as makeshift bridges along with a system of ropes to keep themselves safe. “Walking in it is very difficult, at one point it was up to our chests,” he said. “We got close to the first station, about 130 metres in. Inside that far … it looked like it was just bodies.” The hydropower company had given his team a map and it looked as if there was a chance people in the tunnels could have survived. “They have a safe area inside,” he said. “Some of them could potentially be alive. I am hoping they are alive.” The Red Cross estimates that more than 93,000 people have been affected by the disaster, heightening fears that the climate crisis is destabilising the geology of mountain and polar regions. Shah said the flood was an “unprecedented and devastating natural disaster” and that it was difficult to compile a complete assessment of the damage. “Despite the adverse weather, difficult terrain and continuing risks, we are moving forward with determination to save the lives of our citizens,” he said in a Facebook post late on Sunday. Almost 21,000 security personnel were involved in the rescue operations alongside civilian workers and volunteers, he said. Whole communities had been destroyed by the flooding, leaving families homeless in heavy rain. “There are no roads, they have all been washed away, and many areas are just not accessible,” said a police officer coordinating rescue efforts in Nuwakot district. “It is very difficult for my men. The area is still flooded, and elsewhere it is all marshland.” Nepal’s disaster agency said on Monday it had counted 903 deaths, with 4,793 people, including 592 foreigners, missing. Chinese authorities had reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing as of Sunday. State media said 261 of the missing were foreigners, including more than 100 Nepalis. Among those missing are more than 30 British nationals. On Saturday, a rapid deployment team from the UK arrived in Nepal to support Britons and their families. The UK government has given a £5m support package to assist Nepal in its disaster response. Amid the soaring toll of death and missing was some hope. On Monday, rescuers pulled a six-year-old girl out of mud after hearing crying. “Her body was trapped in mud, but her head was outside,” the Nepali armed police spokesperson Netra Bahadur Karki told Agence France-Presse. China’s state-run CCTV said Beijing had mobilised more than 2,100 rescue workers and allocated at least 220m yuan (£24m) to support relief efforts and had been airdropping equipment and supplies to frontline rescuers, while its soldiers used life-detection equipment to look for the missing. Nepal has said it does not need foreign help in general search and rescue operations, but it has leaned on its neighbours, India and China, for their expertise in tunnel rescues. Rescue operations have been suspended several times since Friday because of bad weather and concerns that a lake formed across the Nepal-China border by the disaster could trigger fresh flooding after it began overflowing into Nepal’s rivers. The weather was good on Monday, however, and rescue ⁠work picked up pace, said Narendra Pariyar, the district administrator of Rasuwa, one of the two hardest-hit districts. In the holy town of Devighat on the banks of the Trishuli, residents walked around the shells of what had once been homes, trying to salvage their belongings from the debris. The flood was “caused by glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming”, CCTV reported, saying it was a “new and prominent feature of cryosphere ‌disasters” on the Tibetan plateau. Two Nepali officials said China had not shared much information on glacier risks and water levels after a meeting to strengthen cooperation earlier this year, and they feared that could hamper future disaster preparedness. China’s foreign ministry said Beijing had continuously provided Nepal with meteorological and hydrological data and will continue to “strongly support” Nepal’s disaster relief efforts and safeguard the two countries’ common interests. With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Kyiv suffers hours of daytime air raids as Russia deploys new jet-powered drones

Kyiv is enduring hours of daytime air raids and air raid warnings as Russia has fired 800 jet-powered drones into Ukraine in four days, using the faster weapons to sustain prolonged waves of attacks The new-model Shahed drones have a cruising speed of 200mph to 250mph , about double the 115mph achieved by the piston-engine version and beyond the speed of Ukraine’s cheap interceptors, making them harder to stop. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said on Sunday that the jet-powered models now accounted for more than half the drones used by Russia to attack and “wear down” the country. “There were almost 1,500 drones of all types in these four days alone – about 800 of them jet-powered,” the president said. Ukraine was currently relying on combat aircraft to shoot them down, he added. A Geran-4, the latest jet-powered model, struck an ammunition dump at Myla, a village 15 miles west of Kyiv on Thursday. Thirty-eight people were killed as the strike unleashed hours of secondary explosions in one of the deadliest single attacks of the war, destroying warehouses and damaging nearby homes. Russia has also made heavy use of the drones in waves of daytime attacks in the past five days, leading to hours of air alerts, particularly in Kyiv. Eight air raid alerts sounded in Kyiv by lunchtime on Monday. Daytime attacks, although far from unknown, were uncommon previously, prompting some businesses to halt operations until the alert had passed, and leaving residents with the decision of whether to remain indoors, seek shelter, or ignore the warnings entirely. Close drone threats also force emergency services to leave an attack site, potentially worsening the impact of any fire caused by a hit, as happened when a food storage facility was struck in Boryspil, to the east of Kyiv, earlier this month. Kremlin forces have attacked warehouses around Kyiv in the past month, in retaliation to a Ukrainian campaign targeting the Wildberries and Ozon distribution chains inside Russia. The attacks have led to food shortages in the shops, but a Ukrainian official urged people not to panic. Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy on defence technology, urged people “do not give in to rumours, misinformation, and panic” and said that companies were rebuilding supply chains in response to the attacks. “We will not die of hunger,” he wrote in a social media posting. Shahed drones, with a distinctive delta wing, were originally designed in Iran, and the technology transferred to Russia. The jet Shahed, the 238, was first unveiled by Iran in autumn 2023, and appeared in Ukraine shortly after. It was not until spring that Russia began to manufacture and deploy its latest jet-powered variant – the Geran-4 – in numbers. Russia now makes more jet-powered drones than the original piston-engined variants, in two models, the delta winged Geran-4 and the Geran-5, which looks like a missile with wings. Beskrestnov said that at least 2,500 of the jet drones had been launched into Ukraine during August, up from 1,500 the month before. Production date stamps found on the bodywork suggest they are being fired within days after being made at a factory in Yelabuga, he added. Ukraine had successfully devised a range of low-cost ground-launched interceptors fast enough to eliminate a piston-engined Shahed, raising interception rates to above 90%. Over the weekend, the president said that level had to be maintained into the autumn. Engineers are now racing to make faster interceptor drones able to knock out jet-powered Shaheds, though details are scant. “Four companies have developed the relevant interceptor drones, and one company has the most successful technology,” Zelenskky said.

Border area between Nepal and China where 33 Australians are missing still almost entirely cut off

It has been almost a week since the catastrophic floods in Nepal and not even a vehicle can get into the area where the majority of missing Australians were last heard from. Gyirong Port, the border area between Nepal and China, was the first to be hit. Images from Chinese rescue teams who have managed to get in by helicopter or hiking show the area has been completely flattened. The immigration building, the power lines, everything, just wiped away. News that phone connectivity to the area was back on spread quickly on Monday around the families of lost Australians who have come to Kathmandu to wait. In WhatsApp groups and over Facebook, they shared any updates they had. One family member, who did not want to be named, told the Guardian she had been trying to ring her husband all morning after she heard the phone line was back up. He did not answer. “The embassies aren’t helping,” she said. The total number of Australians missing in the disaster rose to 43 on Monday, and at least 33 of them were understood to be near Gyirong Port just before the impact. The 15 Australians with the Himalaya Glacier Company, 11 travelling with the Isha Foundation, six from Kailash Journeys and one from Kathmandu Holiday Tours and Travel were all near the border – many of them arrived at the immigration building just 10 minutes before the flood hit. Sujan Wasti, the head of Kailash Journeys’ Nepal operations, said the last he heard from the group was at 7.30 am, when the guide touched base to say they were coming back. They were scheduled to land in Kathmandu on Thursday, with many of them flying home from the capital. “In the area, the rescue has been done,” he said. “Now, it will just be about collecting the bodies and bringing them [home].” Since last Wednesday, Wasti has sent teams up the Trishuli River to look for any signs of the missing trekkers. They have twice flown over the border by helicopter, and have visited local hospitals to see if anyone has shown up. “We are searching every place we can, but still we have not found anyone,” he said. “There is still no sign of them. “Along the border, it was only dead bodies. If they are alive, it will be a miracle.” China is coordinating the search and rescue effort in the area. As of Monday morning, crews reopening the highway towards the port on the Tibet side had 1.15km left of road to clear and reconstruct. Since Friday, no one except rescue crews has been able to access the area – some have hiked for 10 hours to get in, before rappelling down into the valley. Others, when the weather allowed, were helicoptered in. Akhilesh Surjan, a humanitarian, emergency and disaster management expert at Charles Darwin University, said one of “the sensitive questions” has become how far everyone keeps the hope alive. “The rescue experts consider the first 72 hours to be very critical,” he says. “Because after the first 72 hours, that is three days, the chance of finding survivors drops sharply.” Despite this, he said surviving after three days “is not uncommon”. In Japan after the 2011 earthquake, two people were found alive after nine days. “Survival usually depends on whether the person has access to the trapped air pockets, protection from extreme weather, no severe internal bleeding or pressure injuries,” he said. He said there were possibilities for survival – that people had been swept downstream and were stranded, or had been lucky enough to shelter in a place that wasn’t completely destroyed. Getting into Gyirong Port is not the only challenge. The thick layer of mud and pools of water have made it difficult to use life-detection devices accurately, teams have reported. Instead, rescuers are calling out as they look for survivors. Rain is forecast for the next two days, which will further complicate and slow efforts. There is also the threat of another flood or landslide. A team analysing hazards around the area on Monday found “high-risk geological disaster points”. Surjan said rescue teams would be analysing the landscape to determine where people may have moved to, but it was a dangerous job. In Nepal, at least 85 rescuers, including police and army officers, are now missing. “Continuing rainfall and river flow and the poor visibility for choppers or helicopters, communication failure of the first few days, and the limited ability to get heavy rescue equipment into the area will make it harder,” Surjan said. Three days after the disaster, the first team of Chinese rescue workers were able to reach the border crossing complex. They were the first on the ground and said everything had been destroyed. “There was no road … it was all virgin forest and sheer cliffs,” rescue worker Zou Mingqi told Chinese state media. At the border complex, “as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but ruins”. The Isha Foundation has sent volunteers to Kathmandu and Tibet to help families and find any updates they can. Their loved ones were standing inside the immigration centre and were about to cross the border when the disaster hit. On Sunday, the foundation sent families a message, asking them to “expect the worst”. “We have been informed that the valley at the Gyirong port is covered with significant debris, probably as much as [13-15 metres] of silt and debris,” it said. “The local experts who know the terrain well have told our on-ground team that it is very unlikely that anyone could have possibly survived the force of the flood. The mix of debris and water rose very high, probably as high as [45 metres] with immense force, completely wiping out the whole building complex. “We wish with all our hearts that we could offer you something more hopeful. Everything our teams have seen, and everything those closest to the site have shared with us, has led us to expect the worst.”

Germany poised to identify suspect in Leipzig drone attack on Ukrainian plane

The German government is imminently expected to announce who it believes was behind a suspected drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane earlier this month and to outline its response to the incident in coordination with its European and Nato partners. The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told the public broadcaster ARD in an interview on Sunday evening: “We are in the process of concluding the investigations; we have reached a broad agreement within the federal government on how we will respond, and we will make this clear in the coming days. It won’t take much longer.” The government has so far declined to say officially who it thinks was behind the attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle airport on 4 August. There has been widespread speculation that it was coordinated by Moscow. A drone containing explosives was discovered near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft used to transport military supplies. The drone was apparently intended to land on the wings of the aircraft, which was filled with kerosene, but the explosive device did not detonate, according to a report last week referencing the investigation. About 20 minutes after the discovery of the first drone, a second drone possibly collided with a DHL cargo plane, which had to abort its landing manoeuvre and was diverted. Days later, a third drone was found in a field in a municipality that directly borders the western edge of Leipzig airport. Forensic technicians from the federal criminal police office found residues of a substance that initial assessments indicated could have been the highly explosive substance hexogen. This explosive also failed to detonate but according to media reports, the investigators’ report stated: “The perpetrators may have had a far larger attack in mind than previously known to the public.” Moscow has denied involvement. Merz indicated that the information the government was due to release was being closely communicated with Berlin’s partners, and any response would also be carried out in cooperation with them. “It will be a response from Germany, but our partners in the European Union and Nato will not be taken by surprise,” he said. It has been speculated in Berlin that meetings this week of EU defence and foreign affairs ministers in Wicklow, Ireland, could be used to make the announcement. Last week Merz stopped short of naming a suspect but said: “They will pay for this.” He underscored the necessity for a decisive response due to the lengths he said those behind the Leipzig plot and other acts of sabotage had been prepared to go. “Attackers are increasingly ruthlessly accepting even serious property damage, and even injuries and deaths,” he said. The daily Die Welt and the news website Politico have reported, citing sources, that the government will blame Russia for the attack and that its retaliatory measures are likely to include a new, extensive package of sanctions coordinated with Brussels to hinder it financially, as well as more forceful measures against Russia’s shadow fleet, the Russian ships illegally transporting oil. The closure of Russian House, an institution representing Russia’s cultural interests that has a large presence in the centre of Berlin, is also said to be on the cards. In return, Russia would be expected to close Germany’s cultural body in Russia, the Goethe Institute. The political dimensions of the government’s response are potentially considerable owing to the timing. A heated election campaign in eastern German states culminates in a vote this Sunday in which the anti-immigrant, populist AfD is expected to do well. The debate over relations with Russia and whether and how Germany should continue to support Ukraine are playing an important role in the campaign. The AfD’s foreign policy spokesperson, Markus Frohnmaier, said he believed “without a doubt” Germany faced hybrid threats but said he would not speculate over who was behind them, calling on the government to “first establish transparency and provide information about the current state of knowledge”.