Nepal flood death toll tops 1,000

4,000 still missing as rescuers reach remote areas

KATHMANDU:

The death toll in Nepal's floods crossed 1,000 on Tuesday, as rescuers used heavy machinery, helicopters and excavators to reach thousands still missing, nearly a week after the catastrophic Himalayan disaster left a trail of destruction across towns and valleys.

Specialised rescue teams from China, India and Nepal built temporary bridges to reach remote areas and dug through the ruins of hydropower projects in the Himalayas, using excavators to rescue close to 300 workers trapped inside tunnels.

The collapse of a glacier on Aug. 26 sent a deluge of ice, rock and mud sweeping through the impoverished nation's border region with China.

At least 639 people remain stuck in several devastated hydropower stations that have become the focus of rescue efforts, the country's disaster management authority said on Tuesday.

The total confirmed death toll rose to 1,003, with about 4,000 people still missing, including 590 foreign nationals from 39 countries.

"Thousands of citizens have lost their homes, families, loved ones and property," Prime Minister Balendra Shah said in a late-night social media post on Monday. "The government understands the immense pain they are enduring."

Over 11,000 people have been rescued across the affected region while power and communication lines had been restored in some areas, he said, promising support for those displaced by the glacier collapse that sent a deluge of ice, rock and mud sweeping through the impoverished nation's border region with China. The calamity poses a massive challenge for Shah's six-month old government.

"We did not have the time to grab anything before fleeing," said a woman survivor from the hard-hit Rasuwa district who said she walked to Nuwakot with scores of villagers who survived. "What we were wearing is the only pair of clothes we have. And even they are wet from rain."

Rescue teams had managed to restore road networks to Nuwakot, one of the worst-affected districts, facilitating rescue operations and distribution of relief material, Shah said.

Police official Bipin Regmi said a search team recovered 24 bodies from a house in Betrabati village in Nuwakot district. "We are reaching new areas and recovering bodies," Regmi told Reuters.

In China, rescue teams worked through the night to reopen access to the Nepali border, on a steep mountain gorge with unstable cliffs on one side and fast-flowing river channels on the other.