Rescue operations entered their fourth day near the Nepal-China border on Saturday, with at least 2,478 people still untraced after devastating flash floods buried homes and swept away lives earlier this week. Satellite images captured before and after the disaster show the sheer scale of the destruction along the border.
579 killed in Nepal, 1,924 still missing
A 21-member Chinese rescue team, accompanied by a search-and-rescue dog, crossed mountains and valleys and used ropes to navigate forests and cliffs after roads leading to the border complex were destroyed. Nepal’s disaster authority said Friday that the number of missing people had nearly doubled to 1,924. In Tibet’s Gyirong County, at least 558 people were reported missing, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV cited by Reuters. At least 540 foreigners are among those missing in the disaster, many of them Hindu pilgrims from India. A statement from India’s ministry of external affairs said that at least 320 Indians are still missing in Nepal, while another 400 remain stranded in Tibet.
“There was no road… it was all virgin forest and sheer cliffs,” rescue worker Zou Mingqi was quotes as saying by news agency Reuters. When the team reached the complex, he said, “as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but ruins.” he added.
