Search operation for missing people in Rasuwa flash flood underway

Kathamndu, July 9: Nepal Police said that the search for 19 people who went missing following the floods in Rasuwa on Tuesday has been ongoing since this morning.

Sanjay Singh Thapa, spokesperson of the Bagmati Province Police Office and Senior Superintendent of Police, said that after the body of a person who was swept away from Rasuwa was found in Chitwan. Bearing in mind, a search has been extended along the banks of the Trishuli River and up to the Narayani River and in various districts.

He mentioned that police teams have been mobilized to search the riverside areas from Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan and Nawalparasi.

According to him, the body of Police Sub-Inspector Lal Bahadur Shrestha, who went missing in the floods in Rasuwa, was found in Chitwan on Tuesday evening.

Spokesperson Thapa said that the search operation has been extended to various districts on suspicion that the bodies have been swept away by the flood and carried downstream far away, adding that the work of identifying those who died in the flood has also been taken forward.

According to him, only five of the nine people who died in the flood have been identified so far.

Severe damages were caused to Nepal-China border dry port and hydropower plants in this disaster.

Chief of the Department's Flood Forecasting Division, Binod Parajuli, a study is underway to find out the cause of the flood. 

He said that a detailed investigation is being conducted into the matter as the devastating flash flood occurred without any heavy rainfall.