Read the daily news to learn English

Nepal-Tibet death toll rises amid new flood fears and race to free group trapped in tunnel

Thousands of people remain missing after the catastrophic flash flood that has killed more than 700 people in Nepal and Tibet as authorities warn search and rescue teams of rising waters. The combined toll in Nepal and Tibet has climbed to 750 dead and more than 3,000 people missing. Chinese authorities on Sunday reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, of whom 261 were foreign nationals, while Nepali officials confirmed 734 dead and 2,498 people missing. In China’s update, the state broadcaster said the missing foreign nationals included 104 from Nepal, 49 from India, 33 from Latvia, 18 from the US and 15 British citizens. More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far. In a breakthrough late on Saturday, the Nepali army was able to insert a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where workers are believed to be trapped. The home minister, Sudan Gurung, said: “We have already started sending air through the small opening, and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside.” More than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside such tunnels, with rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites. Nepal warned on Sunday of rising flood waters and urged rescue teams to exercise caution. “We have received information that the flood flow in the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa has increased further,” the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said in a warning issued at 7.20 am. In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal’s disaster authority listed 933 hydropower workers among the missing, including trekkers and Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash. The foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, on Saturday estimated Nepal’s reconstruction bill could run into the “billions of dollars”. “The urgency is on rescue and saving lives as much as we can,” he said, appealing for specialised assistance, including heavy-lift drones and technology to help locate people who are trapped. He also called for forensic testing kits to identify bodies and freezer units to store them, saying bodies that have been in water could decompose at a faster rate. Survivors face an agonising wait to learn the fate of missing relatives, and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing. “All the settlements near the river were swept away,” Buddhi Ram Dangol told Agence France-Presse in Nepal’s Nuwakot district. “There is nothing left.” Fears of further flooding have compounded the search for the missing. The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes, and one of these formations has become a risk of further floods. The Chinese and Nepali foreign ministers spoke on Saturday and discussed sharing satellite and hydrological data, both sides said. In Tibet, where Chinese authorities are the only source of information, rescue operations were temporarily paused at the hardest-hit area of Gyirong over the risk of more flooding from a newly formed lake. A total of 2,141 rescuers were near the Gyirong site, the Xinhua state news agency reported, including more than 500 in the worst-hit area. In Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, relatives and friends gathered outside the main government hospital from early morning, desperately searching for news of missing loved ones. Many shuffled between the help desk and the hospital noticeboard, clutching photographs and scanning injured patients’ lists in the hope of finding them. Dil Maya Lama stood weeping outside the help desk at the hospital, searching for information about her missing 26-year-old brother, a driver for a hydropower company in Rasuwa. She had traveled from Ramechhap, about 130km (80 miles) away. “I came here with the hope that I might find him,” she said. “There is no information about him.” Nelza Moktan anxiously sought information about her missing cousin, who also worked as a driver in Rasuwa. “I feel hopeless. It has already been four days,” she said. With Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters

Number of missing in Nepal and Tibet rises to 3,000 as bad weather hampers search

Poor weather temporarily hampered aerial rescue operations in Nepal on Saturday as the search for thousands of missing people in areas devastated by catastrophic flash floods along the border with China continued. The combined toll in Nepal and Tibet rose to 691 dead and more than 3,000 people missing after China’s latest update on Sunday. Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, while Nepal’s disaster agency said late Saturday that the death toll had climbed to 675 with 2,498 people missing. More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far. Seven bodies have also been recovered in India from rivers flowing from Nepal and are believed to be flood victims. The missing list includes 517 foreigners and 933 workers on hydropower projects on the river where the torrent smashed down, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said. A number of rescue workers are also missing, including 45 Nepali army soldiers and 40 police officers. When a Chinese rescue team reached the all-but-obliterated Gyirong border crossing complex for the first time on Friday, they found “nothing but ruins”. Surveillance camera footage from the complex showed huge torrents of water and debris on Wednesday engulfing buildings and people trying to flee. Only ⁠on Friday were rescuers able to reach the area. Amid the deepening crisis, Nepal has now said it needs foreign ⁠help in specialised and technical areas, but not in search and rescue. On ⁠Friday, Nepal’s foreign ministry had said that Kathmandu could manage the rescue efforts on its own for now and declined foreign involvement. The areas in which Nepal is seeking help include opening transport and communication services in places where bridges have been destroyed, identification of dead bodies, DNA testing, rescuing people stuck in tunnels, and storing bodies for longer durations, the foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, said late on Friday. Khanal said there was no need for assistance in general search and rescue which was being done by Nepali rescuers. “We think there is no need for repetition in this,” he said. Nepal has requested that its neighbours, India and China, provide bailey bridges to reopen transport and communication in an area where about two dozen bridges have been destroyed. So far, India has sent three flights carrying about 60 tons of relief material to Nepal, including blankets, medicines, food and water purification tablets, ⁠and a specialised tunnel rescue team. China has also dispatched five tunnel experts from Tibet to Nepal for flood-related rescue work, Chinese state media reported, as the country called for emergency aid to be sent to disaster-hit areas and for international rescue cooperation. Rescuers – including army personnel and police – have been clawing through mud and using drilling equipment to reach more than 100 people trapped inside a hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa. More than 350 people have already been evacuated from the site under “extremely risky” conditions and the office of Nepal’s prime minister said the rescue effort had become “extremely challenging” due to adverse weather. Search and rescue operations were temporarily halted because of rain and fog but resumed on Saturday afternoon after the weather improved. Kawan Koirala, a rescue worker from the Nepal Scout Disaster Response Team, said they had been struggling in thick, leg-sucking mud. “People want their family member’s body back, either dead or alive, but we cannot find them … you can see the mud,” he told Agence France-Presse, exhausted after an 18-hour shift. Nepal is continuing to monitor two barrier lakes upstream of the flood zone, with an official warning that flood risks will persist until both lakes fully drain. Satellite imagery showed the second lake growing larger with no visible outlet, raising concerns that water pressure could still be building. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said that the first barrier lake was reducing in size, citing analysis by the water resources ministry. A Chinese government geohazards expert warned, however, that the lake may be ‌unstable and that more than 100 glacial lakes scattered throughout the area could pose a threat. In Beijing, a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping called for stronger monitoring of glacier lakes and landslide risks, and for closer international disaster cooperation, Xinhua reported. China’s Premier Li Qiang, the country’s No 2 official, arrived in the area of Gyirong on Thursday afternoon, Xinhua said. The visit suggested Beijing was treating the disaster as a matter of the highest national priority. In China, strict controls on the flow of information from one of its most sensitive regions are hampering the public’s understanding of events. The BBC and New York Times have reported that videos of the catastrophic floods, widely shared globally, have not appeared on Chinese social media sites. Tibet, brought under Chinese control in the 1950s, is the most sensitive and tightly controlled region in the country. The Gyirong border port plays a key role in China’s belt and road network linking the country to south Asia, with logistics zones and vehicle parks built there in the past decade. Nepal’s finance minister, Swarnim Waglé, estimated the country will ⁠need $4-$5bn (£3-£3.7bn) for rebuilding. “This is just an estimate. Loss and ⁠damage is being assessed,” he said. More than 90,000 people have been affected by the disaster, the Red Cross estimated. Some of the bodies being recovered had decomposed beyond recognition and will need to be identified using DNA samples, Nepali officials have said.

Ukraine war briefing: Nuclear plant has lost power and running on generators, UN watchdog says

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been without off-site power for more than a week and is now relying on emergency diesel generators, the UN’s nuclear watchdog says. The plant, which needs power to keep its six non-operating reactors cool, has only a 10-day diesel supply on site, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday. “The availability of diesel fuel is of paramount importance whenever a nuclear power plant loses off-site power,” said agency director general Rafael Grossi. “The current situation once again shows why reliable external power and secure supply routes are indispensable for nuclear safety and security.” The plant had been supplied with diesel on Thursday and Friday from another off-site location, the IAEA added. Zaporizhzhia lost its regular power supply “following military activity on the northern side of the Dnipro River”, the statement said. The IAEA said it was trying to negotiate a local ceasefire to allow repairs to electrical lines. The plant, in southern Ukraine, was seized by the Russian army in March 2022 and its six reactors have been shut down since that year. Germany is reportedly preparing to blame Russia for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport and impose sanctions on Russian entities. Friedrich Merz’s government is expected to announce the “extensive” measures in the next week, Politico reports, potentially alongside a new EU sanctions package. Ukrainian prosecutors have opened an investigation into why munitions were stored so close to homes after a deadly Russian attack on a warehouse storing “explosive objects” near Kyiv’s western suburbs. At least 37 people were killed in the attack on the warehouse in Myla on Friday, making it the war’s deadliest attack this year, Donna Ferguson reports. The attack damaged at least 50 residential buildings, including a care home for elderly and disabled people, and sparked a huge fire and explosions in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. The regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko, said a further 42 people, including four children, had been injured in the strike. The warehouse was a depot owned by the Ukrainian military and stored shells, drones and other munitions, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address. “The first impact was on a place where ammunition was being stored that absolutely should not have been there – a depot of the defence forces. [There was] detonation of shells, mines, other munitions and drones on a significant scale,” the Ukrainian president said. Finland’s president said he did not believe Russia would risk an attack against a ⁠Nato country, with Alexander Stubb telling the Bild newspaper that it would “make no sense” to test the resolve of the alliance. “I simply see neither evidence nor facts to support it,” he told Bild, adding that he ‌did not believe that Russia “would ever want to attack Nato, the world’s most powerful military ‌alliance”. Stubb, whose country joined Nato in 2023, said the alliance had to be prepared for any scenario but he did not believe Moscow was in a position to go to war with Nato. “It makes no sense for any power in the world to test the resolve of this alliance.” The ⁠Russian defence ministry said Russian troops had captured the ⁠village of Khrapivshchyna in ‌Ukraine’s Sumy ‌region, and the ‌villages of Novoandriivka and Rubizhne in the Donetsk region. The ministry ‌said on Saturday via its Telegram channel that it had struck a logistics centre in ⁠the Kyiv region where components for Ukrainian ballistic missiles were ‌stored. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Three people ⁠have ⁠been killed and nine ⁠injured in a ⁠Ukrainian drone ‌attack ‌in the ‌Russian Belgorod region, local authorities said ‌on their Telegram channel. Three of the ⁠injured were in a serious condition, ‌officials said. Europe is ⁠making statements suggesting that it regards ⁠Russia as ⁠an “adversary and even an enemy,” Kremlin spokesperson ⁠Dmitry Peskov has claimed, adding that ⁠Moscow sees no prospect of ‌improved ‌relations between Russia and the ‌EU. It was not immediately clear which statements Peskov was referring to. Peskov added ‌that the EU’s current politicians are confrontational towards Russia, “not only in words but also in deeds”. In 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since the conflict began, the UN in August had verified at least 16,874 civilians killed, including 820 children, and 51,173 injured, including 3,126 children.

Families balance hope and despair in race to find survivors in Nepal as 41 Australians still missing

Some of them are young, some old; most of them appear to be men. Some of them could be sleeping, except for the mud that covers their bodies. Some, it seems, would be impossible to recognise even if you knew them well. Every few hours Nepalese authorities hang pictures of the deceased, who have not been identified, on a wall at the back of a teaching hospital in Kathmandu. Saluja, a young woman who did not give her last name, stood among a group of more than 100 people watching. Her cousin, 31, was not on the wall that day. “It’s very hard to identify their faces,” Saluja says. As she speaks, some in the crowd take videos to send to other relatives; they stand around comparing them, trying to work out whether the person in the photo is their loved one. The bodies have a piece of paper lying on top of them, showing which district they were found in, with a number to contact. “My cousin is missing,” Saluja says. “He worked in a hydro power plant … Since the flood, we have not been able to contact him. “It was the first area to get affected, so we really don’t know. But we are hoping for the best.” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email While she talked, her other cousin, his older brother, was on the plane flying home from Australia. Since Wednesday, Kathmandu has swelled with international visitors – not tourists but people looking for their loved ones. The Nepalese government has deployed about 15,000 personnel – from the army to the police – to move up the valley and into the areas decimated by the flood, hoping to find survivors. While they battle arduous search conditions – areas completely cut off, roads destroyed, bridges washed away and a new lake threatening to burst – loved ones from Australia rush to Nepal to be with their families. They come to chase leads and to wait. “My older cousin, he’s a doctor in Australia, and his wife is a dentist,” Saluja says. “So they both are coming back. They’re going to try with the search and to be with the family as well. They obviously want to be with the family.” It’s been four days since the glacier collapsed high in the Himalayas, sending a wall of water, ice and mud down to destroy everything in its path. The number of people killed has risen to 669, with nearly 3,000 people lost. On the Chinese side, more than 550 people are unaccounted for. Forty-two Australians are still missing, according to Dfat, including six identified as missing by Chinese authorities. On Saturday, New South Wales man Michael Keats was confirmed to be one of them. He had reached the Nepal-Tibet border just moments before disaster struck, his family said in a statement. “Confusion around the timing of the floods initially led us to believe our beautiful Michael would be safe in Kathmandu, preparing to fly home,” they said. “Unfortunately, it was confirmed relatively quickly by the Isha Foundation that Michael and his Kailash travel group had arrived at Gyirong Port on the Nepal-Tibet border just 10 minutes before the tragic floods hit.” Keats’ family said their thoughts and prayers were with everyone affected by the tragedy. “[Michael] is gentle and kind, with a unique light that touches everyone lucky enough to know him,” they said. Sagar Shrestha serves as the director of the Disaster and Crisis Management Department at the Nepal Red Cross Society in Kathmandu. He said the death toll could climb into the thousands. “But they are still finding survivors,” he says. “Some of them are being found in the jungle; they’ve gone up the mountain and are being helicoptered out.” He said there were 14 hydropower plants along the river, six of which were under construction. It’s believed people could still be alive in the majority of them. One of the key issues has become “the dignified management of the dead”, he says, as morgues and hospitals have filled up in some areas. According to local media, officials in the Chitwan district will collect DNA samples from 229 bodies that are starting to decay and are no longer identifiable, before burying them. “It is now the major concern,” Shrestha says. “And the second thing is that if we are not being able to manage the dead bodies, there could be some kind of health issues.” Since the crisis started, Sagar Pandey has barely slept. Pandey, the chief executive of the Himalaya Glacier Company, says 47 people from the trekking service are lost, including 15 Australians. He had Australians in two different locations: five people 1.5km from the border of Tibet and Nepal, who were meant to be coming back that morning after breakfast and another 10 who had left the Syabrubesi valley and were driving towards the border checkpoint. “I believe they were trapped because all three cars and jeeps are missing,” he says. “There were a total of 14 people: three drivers and then one guide and 10 Australians.” Pandey has been spending his days going between the hospitals and checking in with the morgues to see if anyone on his tours has shown up. He is contacting family members of loved ones who are overseas and helping those who have just arrived. He has also been grieving his brother, who was guiding one of the treks. On Wednesday, he chartered a helicopter to the disaster zone – he could see about 800 people standing on the mountain, who have all been rescued now, he says. “There is a very low chance of survival that someone can still be alive,” he says. “The next process is to find the body if possible.” There has been one glimmer of hope – on Saturday afternoon the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced Australian woman Cara Severino was found safe after consular officials worked out where she was, and reached her via four-wheel drive. In a statement, Severino said she got out safely by teaming up with other survivors and using a tractor to drive out of the national park. “My heart goes out to all the Nepalese families who are grieving loved ones,” she said. “We passed a guy hiking up to Thulu Safru who lost his whole family when their whole town was destroyed. It’s just so devastating and undeserving.” “I feel for the families of those still missing; I know how much my family and friends went through.” On Saturday afternoon, the Australian ambassador to Nepal, Simon Ernst, was waiting at the airport. Six more members of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s crisis response team had just arrived to help. “There is a lot of damage to infrastructure, damage to power generation capability, damage to phone lines, telegraph poles, so communications is out,” he says. “Even the Nepali forces have lost contact with some of their personnel. “Given the nature of search, rescue, and recovery operations, there are people in the water, in the mud. They’re obviously in danger should further flooding occur, and we can get heavy rainfall at any time given the monsoon.” The disaster unfolded over three Nepalese districts – the one closest to Kathmandu has been the easiest to conduct search and rescue operations, because the accessibility is better and the valley is wider. Most Australians were last heard from in the top district, which was hit first by the flood. No one knows how long it will take to search the area and find everyone, Ernst says, but in the event an Australian is found, the embassy will be told immediately. “We understand that this is an incredibly difficult situation for [families],” Ernst says. “They should feel confident that the Australian government and the Nepalese government are doing everything we can to find their loved ones. “They are very welcome to maintain contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs through our contact numbers and our contact centre in Canberra. If they’re here in Kathmandu, they’re welcome to make contact directly with the embassy, including with me.”

Nepal-Tibet floods: Nepal calls for technical support for rescue efforts as number of missing rises to nearly 3,000 – as it happened

We’re wrapping up the Nepal-Tibet flash flood for the time being. Here are the latest developments: Nearly 3,000 people are missing. Nepal’s disaster agency on Saturday said 2,426 people were missing on its side of the border, while China’s Xinhua news agency reports the total number of missing in Tibet is now 554. This includes at least 777 foreigners and 933 workers on hydropower projects on the river where the torrent smashed down. The death toll in Nepal has now risen to 675, the country’s disaster authority has said. China’s Xinhua news agency earlier today reported seven people confirmed dead in Tibet– where information is under the strict control of Chinese authorities – that brings the death toll for the disaster to 682. More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far but at least 93,000 people are estimated to have been affected by the disaster, according to the Red Cross. Nepal rescuers send air pipe into tunnel with trapped workers. Nepali army rescuers sent air pipes into tunnels, in the hopes of reaching missing hydropower workers, AFP reported. Rescue efforts are focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites. Nepal’s government has appealed for foreign support to aid rescue efforts. This includes financial aid and freezers to preserve bodies. Nepal’s foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, says reconstruction efforts could run into “billions of dollars”, AFP reports. He added: “We will do loss and damage research and then we plan, but I am reaching out to our international community for support.”

Palestinian woman and NBC News team reportedly attacked in West Bank

A Palestinian woman and an NBC News team are reported to have been attacked and injured by masked Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday, amid worsening confrontations in the area. Benjamin Netanyahu said he condemned the violence committed “by a handful of rioters”. The attack occurred when four members of the news team were interviewing Aida Ahmed Abdullah and her family in the Palestinian town of Jalud, near Nablus. Abdullah told the outlet that they had been driven out of their home by settlers, and the team was walking down a hill toward the house. A car with Israeli license plates reversed up the hill toward them. At least four men with their faces covered leapt from the vehicle, hitting them with sticks and throwing rocks. “They jumped out, beat us, then jumped back in the car,” said NBC News correspondent Matt Bradley. Bradley was hit twice in the arm and treated at a nearby clinic. Abdullah, 51, was taken for medical care by the Red Crescent. Her injuries were not life-threatening. Three other members of the news team were also injured and treated. “Suddenly a car came to us,” said producer Lawahez Jabari. “The settlers had sticks, I saw a gun, but they didn’t use the gun.” Camera operator Khaldoon Eid said the team had not expected to be attacked in a village. Several violent incidents in the area were reported on Saturday. Palestinian workers were pepper-sprayed in nearby Qusra by masked Israeli settlers. Israeli security forces told the outlet they had received reports that “violent clashes had occurred, including stone-hurling toward Palestinians and additional civilians”. They said “security forces identified dozens of rioters who had barricaded themselves inside a Palestinian home while Palestinian residents were inside”, the statement said. “The security forces who arrived at the scene initially operated to remove the rioters from the home and separate the groups, in order to protect the residents inside. In addition, the security forces confiscated vehicles belonging to the Israeli rioters that were suspected of having been used to reach the area,” the statement said. “IDF soldiers and Israel Border Police forces continue to operate in the areas of Qusra and Jalud to prevent further disturbances and restore order in the area,” it added. Earlier this month, a group of settlers began blocking supplies from entering Palestinian houses on the outskirts of the village near Nablus, trapping residents inside and drawing strong criticism from the US ambassador. Israeli forces continue to operate in the area while settlers still roam the surrounding hills. Netanyahu, whose government has been accused of turning a blind eye to the settler attacks, condemned the “criminal acts of violence” and blamed “a handful of rioters who violate the law, cause enormous injustice to the law-abiding settler public, hinder the IDF in fulfilling its missions and harm Israel’s standing in the world”. According to the United Nations’ office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, Israeli forces or settlers killed 76 Palestinians in the West Bank in the year to 24 July. Three Israelis were killed over the same period.

Sydney man Nava flew to Nepal thinking his wife had been found. Crushingly, ‘the search goes on’

Nava Pandey had hoped the search for his wife was over. Nepal’s disaster management agency had been releasing names of people it had found in stages. One of them was almost identical to his wife, Sumi Adhikari, who, along with 40 other Australians, went missing in the catastrophic Nepal-Tibet flood disaster on Wednesday. “The last name matched,” Pandey says. “But they hadn’t disclosed the address of the person or the nationality. And it was very hard to figure out where exactly this person was. So we have called a few people, and someone drove there.” On Friday night, a family friend drove more than two hours out of Kathmandu, where Pandey was waiting with family for news, to the Nuwakot district, where the main emergency holding and rescue centre is located, near the flood zone. Adhikari, 41, is one of about 130 pilgrims who were near the Gyirong border crossing between Nepal and China when the floods struck. The area was one of the hardest hit – CCTV footage showed a huge wall of water and debris smashing through buildings as people tried to flee on foot. It was about 7am on Wednesday morning in Nepal when Pandey, who was at their home in Sydney, spoke to his wife, who had finished a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash with the Isha Foundation the day before. The pair have two children, who she was longing to see. “She was probably one and a half hours away from [the Gyirong border crossing],” he says. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “She was really happy. She had done what she had gone to do; she really wanted to do this. But she was excited to come back.” Adhikari was finishing the trek with a sore throat and slight fever, but that did not affect her good mood, Pandey says. She told him she wanted to come back in 10 years and do it again. At 9am, the last location tracker data on her iPhone was recorded near the border about 10 minutes after impact. She was standing with the Isha Foundation group in the immigration centre when the flood hit. The building was completely washed away. On Thursday, Pandey got on a flight from Sydney to Nepal to be closer to the search. Late on Friday night, the family friend called – it was not Adhikari on the list of survivors. “It was a different person, a local,” Pandey says. “The search goes on.” The rescue effort up the river has been hampered by the remoteness of the location and the destruction wreaked by the flood. Roads have disappeared and bridges have been completely washed away. Satellite images show the area has been flattened to mud. Getting to the Gyirong border crossing has been impossible by car, with rescuers only able to helicopter in. On Friday, rescue teams from China and Nepal had to stop after a barrier lake began to overflow. On Saturday, the Nepali army was expected to enter the area and begin a ground search. Chinese rescuers who had rappelled down the wooded mountain slopes to get into the area reported that it had been obliterated. “As far as the eye could ⁠see, there was nothing but ruins,” rescue worker Zou Mingqi said. Pandey was hopeful ground crews could begin searching the area by Saturday afternoon, but said families have not received enough information – especially from the Chinese side. He says the Chinese government may have information that would help locate some of the missing Australians. “We respectfully call upon the Chinese government and local authorities to release all available verified information, provide regular updates about the search efforts and establish direct communication with the affected families,” he says. “Families should not be left without answers during such a critical time.” Newcastle woman Reshma Patel, 46, was also in the Isha Foundation group. She didn’t know 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. As of Saturday, nearly 3,000 people are missing, including at least 777 foreigners. Nepal’s disaster agency on Saturday said 2,426 people were missing on its side of the border, while China’s Xinhua news agency reported the total number of missing in Tibet is now 554. Many of the missing foreigners in the area are believed to be pilgrims like Patel and Adhikari, who were there to walk around Mount Kailash – one of the two mountains in the Himalayas that cannot be climbed because of its spiritual significance. The peak is sacred to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and those belonging to the pre-Buddhist Bon religion, and attracts thousands of tourists each year. Hindus believe that Mount Kailash is the spiritual home of Shiva, the god of destruction and transformation. Going on this pilgrimage was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Patel, Valsan says. “She was getting spiritual,” he says. “She wanted to do this trip solo, and said she was attracted to the place.” Like Pandey, Valsan says the families need more information – he wants the Australian government to make sure rescuers have a database of Australians’ details. While they wait, they’re torn between hope and despair. In Kathmandu, Pandey spends his waking hours hoping he will be able to bring his wife home with him. “I’m just keeping my fingers crossed … hopefully, you know, we get some positive news.”

Daughter traces mother and aunt’s last known location in Nepal through TikTok video

The daughter of a woman missing in Nepal has told how she traced her mother’s location through a TikTok video posted hours before the devastating flash flood hit. The catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and sweeping away entire villages, have killed at least 675 people, while more than 3,000 remain missing. Among the missing are 33 British nationals, including a 13-year-old, NHS workers and a priest. A team from the UK will arrive in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, on Saturday. Tulshi Patel’s mother, Hemangini Jitendra Patel, and her aunt, Hema Sunil Amin, set off on a pilgrimage in which they had planned to travel into Tibet, but the pair have not been contactable since the flash floods hit. In an interview with LBC’s Matt Frei, Patel said the two women had been talking about the trip since the start of the year and the journey had been “on their bucket list”. She said she had last spoken to her mother and aunt on Monday, had received a photo of them on Tuesday, and their last known location had come from a GPS signal from the tour group at a place called Friendship Bridge at the Nepal-China border. Patel, a pharmacist from Milton Keynes, said: “We did our own deep-dive research and we found a TikTok video that verified and showed my mum and auntie and three other people from the tour at the border waiting to cross, I guess, that the local Nepali tour guide had made.” Of the video, Patel said: “It was Wednesday morning, just before 6am, Nepal time. “They were supposed to have crossed the border on Tuesday, but I guess due to weather conditions, or whichever it was, they got delayed and unfortunately crossed over on Wednesday.” The flood is believed to have occurred after a magnitude 5.2 seismic event near the border between Nepal and China on Wednesday at 8.37am local time, according to the US Geological Survey. Patel said her mother and aunt had been in good health and had prepared well for the trip. “They’d gone on walks regularly, they were looking forward to it. This is all they wanted,” she said. “Their positive viewpoints, health, mental health was great and they were very strong and positive about everything. “This was something that they were both looking forward to. They’d been talking about this from the beginning of the year. It was something that was on their bucket list that they really wanted to do.” Patel said she had messaged the two women “in the hopes that maybe we’ll see a tick to say they’ve seen it or read it” and had attempted to contact the tour guide. “We’ve messaged the tour guide in case he has a signal because he’ll have a local Sim as well. “Every day we’re calling via WhatsApp … We’ve not given up, but, from our end, all we can do is research, but we just need kind of eyes and ears there from our side to basically get them out. Get all of them out and safe.” Patel said the family had considered travelling to Nepal to join search efforts but had decided against this as they did not know how close they could get to the region in order to help. Some of those missing were visiting Kailash Mansarovar, a high-altitude site in ‌Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists. Neetu Goyal Tiwari, 51, was on her “dream” trip to complete a pilgrimage when the flash floods hit. The family have been desperately phoning contacts in Nepal in an attempt to find her, though they increasingly believe her to still be in China. As many of the family members are based in India, it is difficult for them to obtain visas to search for her. Her brother, Naresh Goyal, said Neetu’s husband and daughter remained in the UK for now. “We’re not sure what the next second holds and what we should do from our end, because we’re trying to reach everyone we can,” he said. “She was a very fun-loving woman [and] really had a great heart. I really hope she comes back soon.” Other families of those missing have travelled to the affected region from the UK. Leena Bector, 53, from Slough, was among 27 travellers who are unaccounted for. Her husband, Bhupesh Bector, told the Times he was booking the next flight to Kathmandu after the Home Office had failed to confirm whether Leena was on its missing persons list. He said: “Even if they find her today or tomorrow, I need to be there. She must be in trauma.”