About 100 Bodies Recovered in a Day Amid Desperate Search Efforts

[Anchor]

The scale of casualties is rapidly growing. With about 100 bodies recovered in Nepal alone, the death toll in China and Nepal has risen to 472, with more than 1,500 people still missing.

Reporter Kim Young-a has the details.

[Reporter]

Survivors struggling to wade through a sea of mud are pulled from the front and pushed from behind.

Nearby, a helicopter hovers with a basket lowered, waiting to airlift survivors to safety.

The Nepalese Army announced that it deployed two helicopters to the isolated Trishuli Hydropower Station site, rescuing some 350 workers and nearby residents who had been trapped inside a tunnel.

However, around 100 people remain trapped inside the tunnel.

With some 80 bridges collapsed and roads damaged in numerous places, a significant number of areas remain completely inaccessible to rescue teams.

[Leila Peters Yahia / UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal: Accessing the sites is extremely difficult as road networks have collapsed. Approximately 40 kilometers of roads have been destroyed.]

Nepalese authorities stated that they recovered about 100 additional bodies in a single day in and around Bagmati Province.

A large number of them are Indian tourists and Chinese workers who went missing near the Trishuli River.

Seven bodies swept away by rapid currents were even recovered in India, more than 150 kilometers away.

The death toll in Nepal, which stood at 362 the previous day, increased to 469.

Combined with China, the death toll exceeds 472, with over 1,500 missing.

Outside funeral homes and hospitals, endless lines of people are waiting to check on the fate of their missing family members.

[Chamindi Shrestha / Mother of a Missing Person: My son is a driver, and I was told he went as far as 3 kilometers away from the Palpa area. I was able to talk to him until 8:30 (on the day of the accident), but I haven't been able to reach him since.]

With rain forecasted locally through Sunday, followed by reports of feared additional flooding, concerns are rising that rescue operations will become even more difficult.

(Video Editing: Chae Chul-ho)

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