Families gather across Nepal for news on missing loved ones as death toll rises

Hundreds of families in Nepal gathered at hospitals, relief centres, and an army base on Saturday, hoping for news about their missing loved ones. Powerful flash floods swept through the country, killing at least 734 people. More than 2,400 others are still unaccounted for in Nepal, and over 550 are missing just across the border in Tibet.

Among those missing are 33 British citizens, including a 13-year-old girl. Nepal's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, warned that parts of the land had turned into swampland. Rescue teams are working against the clock to find people who are still trapped.

One of the most urgent rescue efforts is happening at a hydropower construction plant — a facility that uses water to generate electricity. More than 100 workers are believed to be trapped inside a tunnel filled with mud. Rescuers pushed an air pipe into the tunnel to help the people inside breathe while the search continues.

Identifying the victims has become a massive challenge for authorities. In the district of Chitwan, officials said they had only been able to identify 4 out of 233 recovered bodies. Some remains have even washed 250 miles downstream into neighbouring India, and Nepal has asked for international help in identifying the dead.

Makeshift, or temporary, morgues have been set up in community halls and police buildings. These areas lack refrigeration, meaning the heat and humidity are causing bodies to decompose quickly. One volunteer warned that the situation could turn into a severe public health crisis within 48 hours if storage conditions do not improve.

Tearful families posted photos of missing loved ones on the walls outside Tribhuvan University hospital in Kathmandu. At an army base in the district of Nuwakot, people waited in long lines for information. Military workers taped sheets of paper listing the names of the missing to a wall, and families crowded around them, some wiping away tears as they searched through the names.

A British woman named Tulshi Patel shared her own desperate search for her mother and aunt, who had been on a religious pilgrimage and were planning to visit Tibet. Patel said she found a TikTok video showing her mother and aunt waiting at the border to cross — and they have not been heard from since. Every day we are calling via WhatsApp and normal route just to see if anything, she said. We have not given up, but from our end, all we can do is research.

A rapid deployment team from the United Kingdom arrived in Nepal on Saturday to help British nationals affected by the disaster. The team includes specially trained crisis response workers who will work with the British embassy and local authorities. So far, more than 6,600 people have been rescued across the country.

Nepal's finance minister said it could cost between four billion and five billion dollars to rebuild the areas destroyed by the floods. Nepal has turned down international offers to help with search and rescue, but said it does need technical support. The government asked for expert help with rescuing people from flooded tunnels, DNA testing, and better storage for recovered bodies.

Scientists say the floods were triggered when part of a glacier and mountainside collapsed on Langtang Lirung, a mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border. Experts warn that mountains in this area have been warming about five times faster than the global average since the 1960s, and the rate of ice loss has doubled since 2000. Nepal's foreign minister called on the world to work together to protect the Himalayan ecosystem, saying that climate change is one of the biggest challenges his country faces.