More than 30 British people remain missing following devastating flash floods in Nepal.
The catastrophic floods killed at least 469 people and left hundreds more missing, according to official estimates released on Friday.
The UK has offered £5m to help the Nepalese government amid a “very distressing and devastating situation”, Andy Burnham said. The prime minister added the government will be “providing all the support we can” to the families of missing Britons.
Sarada Simkhada, a senior nurse at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, was one of 33 Britons missing, a local councillor said, as rescue efforts continued after flooding in the Rasuwa district bordering China’s Tibet region.
Another Briton from Slough is also said to be unaccounted for.
Fishtail Tours and Travels said Leena Bector was among 27 travellers associated with the tour group currently missing.
“I know that she’s in Nepal for sure,” her husband, Bhupesh Bector, told The Times. “So even if they find her today or tomorrow, I need to be there.”
Meanwhile, an Essex nurse said his relatives were “swept away” by the flash floods as he launched a fundraiser to support those affected by the disaster.
Rajendra Pudasaini, president of the Non-Resident Nepali Association UK, said Nepal was witnessing an “irreplaceable loss”, adding that the country was “paying the price for global warming”.
He also launched an appeal to raise funds for families affected by the devastation.
Mr Pudasaini said his mother was rescued by the army along with her months-old great-grandchild.
“My mother was trapped in the hospital. She went to the hospital in the morning just a few minutes before the flood came in the river,” he said on Thursday evening.
“She just crossed past, and luckily she survived, and she was taken to safety today about a couple of hours ago.”
The nurse said he had “lost contact with the families” because of the damage done to electricity supplies and internet connections in Nepal.
Mr Pudasaini’s son Suraj, from Essex, said his grandmother, great-uncle and great-aunt were missing. “We just keep on calling them to see whether they pick up,” he said.
“We are basically trying to help them to rehabilitate, giving them basic needs, food, clothes.”
The association he leads is meeting with the Foreign Office on Friday morning.
A Sussex man said he had not heard from his wife, mother, father, brother, and uncle in Nepal since the country was hit by the flash floods.
Speaking to the BBC, Pramod Poudel from Uckfield, said he believed “90 per cent” of the village his family lived in had been swept away, and that he feared the worst for them.
“I have my dad, my mum, my brother, my uncle, and my wife who live there, and I haven’t heard from them for a while,” he told BBC Radio Sussex. “I don’t know what to expect.”
Hema Amin, from Croydon in south London, had started a pilgrimage to Gosainkunda Lake on Monday that was supposed to last until 4 September.
Her husband, Sunil Amin, told Sky News: “I keep trying to call her. I’ve been trying, trying, trying.”
A number of those missing had been making a pilgrimage to the sacred Hindu site of Mount Kailash, Nepalese tour operator The Trekkers’ Society said.
The operator said nine British nationals on one of its tours to the site were among those unaccounted for – four men, aged 14, 50, 50, and 54, and five women, aged 40, 46, 50, 50, and 53.
General manager Roshan Basnet said: “When the flood happened, they were still at the Chinese immigration at the border. After the flood happened, we had no contact with our tour guide.
“We have yet to get the confirmation of what state they’re in, but as for the video that is circulating on the internet, we believe that it’s a pretty difficult situation.”
Tour operator Alpine Eco Trek said a 13-year-old girl was among the missing British nationals, as well as two Irish citizens.
Among the missing British nationals are also three men aged 65, 64, and 52, and seven women aged 44, 47, 51, 60, 63, 63, and 65, according to travel logs obtained by PA.
Kumar Adhikari, the manager of Alpine Eco Trek, said the tour group, who were on a nine-day tour to Mount Kailash, were crossing into Tibet from Nepal when they became trapped at the border as the flash floods struck.
He said he was in contact with his tour guides until 8.40am when their phones went offline, at which point the group would have been inside Tibet’s immigration office.
Tour operator Kailash Journeys confirmed it had not been able to account for seven UK nationals, five women and two men aged between 18 and 55, travelling with the company.
Welsh tour company EverTrek said three of its Nepalese guides are missing.
Andy Moore, founder of the firm, told The Independent: “We have three of our guides missing: Bal Kumar Tamang, Angchering Sherpa and Lopsang Sherpa.
“They’re three guides we’ve worked with for the last seven to eight years now, and we’ve had no contact for the last 24 hours.
“It’s off-season at the moment because of the monsoon, so they’re freelance at that time, but they were essentially on the way to Mount Kailash in Tibet.”
Mr Moore said his entire team has been shaken by the news, but they are doing all they can to find out more and attempt to locate them
He added: “Although the Himalayas are an amazing place for trekking, it can also be brutal at times, and it’s been a very sad 24 hours.
“Seeing some of the video clips, they look like something out of a movie, and you know that if you get swept up in that, it’s very severe.
“For us, it was just trying to contact the people we knew were in that vicinity, and unfortunately, we haven’t.
“We’re obviously praying for a miracle, but looking at the scenes and not having any signal or contact from them, it’s looking, unfortunately, very ominous.”
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