KATHMANDU: Rescuers yesterday discovered 21 more bodies buried under tonnes of mud and trees following a massive landslide in northeast Nepal feared to have killed at least 160 people.
Thirty corpses, including seven children, have so far been pulled from the landslide that crushed hamlets along a river in Sindhupalchok district before dawn on Saturday following monsoon rains, an official said.
“The death toll has now reached 30, that includes 17 women, four men, seven children and two bodies we have not been able to identify,” regional police chief Subodh Ghimire said.
More than 100 police and soldiers, using bulldozers and excavators, were digging through piles of mud and rocks to reach about 135 bodies still thought buried.
“We expect to find many more bodies today as we continue our search of the affected area,” said Ghimire from badly-hit Jure village.
The head of Nepal’s disaster management division, Yadav Prasad Koirala, said, “we think the final death toll could be around 165 or higher”.
The absence of official records has left authorities struggling to determine the exact number of people missing, Koirala said.
Traumatised villagers kept up their anxious vigil at the landslide site, about 120 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu, in the hope their loved ones would be discovered by rescuers.
Kalu Tamang, a 41-year-old cook who lost eight members of his family, including his wife, mother and four children, said he was desperate “to see their faces one last time”.
AFP
