Nepal observes national day of mourning for victims of flash flood disaster

Nepalis observed a national day of mourning for the victims of the flash flood on Monday, lighting candles to mark the last day of the traditional 13-day Hindu mourning period.

While flags were flown at half mast, commemorations were scaled back as rescue teams continue to search for survivors. Candlelight vigils were planned for Monday evening.

At least 1,287 people are known to have died after a flash flood, believed to have been triggered by a glacial collapse, swept through villages in a Himalayan valley along the border between Nepal and Tibet.

Almost two weeks later, more than 5,000 people are still missing.

Phanindra Paudel of the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) told the Reuters news agency that there would be "no government programmes organised as the rescue and search operation is still going on in the flood-hit areas."

Nepal's president, Ram Chandra Paudel, toured areas devastated by the floods on Monday, an aide told Reuters.

The home ministry said that government offices, as well as missions abroad, would fly the national flag at half mast to mark the final day of the mourning period.

Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told Agence France-Presse that rescue efforts were continuing "with the same tempo we had on day one".

"Our focus is on search and rescue at three levels - on ground, by air, and in the tunnels," he said.

"We are making sure that no one is still stranded."

Among the few places where rescuers still see a chance of finding survivors is in tunnels that form part of the region's hydropower stations, with hundreds of workers among the missing.

Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, who is advising Nepali teams, said in an update on X that the operation meant facing "multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved."

Four people have been rescued in recent days, three at hydropower stations or tunnels.

On Saturday, a 64-year-old Nepali woman was pulled from her buried house on Saturday, more than 10 days after a wall of ice, rock and mud partially buried her house in the Nuwakot district.

She was discovered alive on the fourth floor of the building by Nepal's Armed Police Force and airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment.

On Sunday rescue workers in China recovered twelve bodies in the Nepal-Tibet border, using excavators, shovels and ground penetrating radar at the site.

At least 5,083 people are still missing in Nepal. On the Tibetan side, the death toll reported by Chinese media on Friday was 31, with 531 people unaccounted for.

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