"Muddy Water Surged Four Stories High… We Ran for Our Lives"

[Anchor]

While the whereabouts and safety of 1,500 people remain unconfirmed, some have managed to be rescued. Survivors recount the desperate moments when they had no choice but to run for their lives, describing the tense situation at the time.

This is a report by Jeon Yeonnam.

[Reporter]

House-sized muddy water comes rushing down, instantly swallowing a construction site and a village.

The village, having suffered through The Great Flood, has turned into a mudfield, with only the upper parts of some buildings visible among the mud serving as traces of the village.

It is literally reduced to ruins, making it impossible to distinguish where the road is and where the river was.

Survivors, including foreign tourists who were barely rescued and gathered at a military training center in the Nuwakot district, patted their chests in relief while vividly testifying about the escape.

[Anjana Raja / Indian Tourist Survivor: I saw muddy water violently surging up to four stories high. We ran like crazy to survive. We sprinted up 500 steps toward the mountain to find a safe place.]

They also explained that right before the massive flood struck, they heard a tremendous roaring sound that felt like an earthquake.

[Anjana Raja / Indian Tourist Survivor: It sounded like a giant boulder falling. The sound made when a large rock heavily crashes into water. Like when a huge stone drops into water and creates a splash. So at first, I thought it was an earthquake.]

Running toward higher ground was the only way.

[Stefano Rutumulo / Italian Tourist Survivor: There was nothing else we could do except run away. The road is about 40 to 50 meters wide, and all of that happened in just one minute.]

Although they narrowly escaped with their lives, survivors remain stranded as roads have been cut off in various places and continue to go hungry in the wake of The Great Flood, a local Korean missionary reported.

[Heo Eon-yak / Korean Missionary Living in Nepal: There are a huge number of people in that village over there, but we cannot reach that village at all. Right now, because there is no food, 250 children who gathered after having class at a school haven't been able to eat for two days....]

It is reported that many survivors were separated from their families after leaving for work or school, unable to even verify whether they are alive or dead.

[Video Editing: So Ji-hye]

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