Death Toll Exceeds 1,000... Entire City Becomes a Massive Morgue

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The death toll has surpassed 1,000, with approximately 4,400 people still missing. In the lower reaches of the river where washed-down bodies are accumulating, Nepali authorities are collecting DNA samples and conducting mass burials for hundreds of unidentified bodies.

Reporter Kim Young-a has the story.

[Reporter]

An excavator digs into the middle of a jungle.

Nearby, soldiers are inserting numbered tags into flower pots and securing them with cement.

These will serve as headstones to be placed on the graves of unidentified bodies.

[Anil Thapa / Police Inspector, Chitwan: The bodies we found were already in an advanced state of decomposition, making it extremely difficult to keep them in urban areas. Therefore, we had no choice but to carry out burial operations here.]

Numbers have been marked along with the DNA profiles of the bodies so that families can potentially locate them later.

At a temporary mass grave set up near Bharatpur in the Chitwan district, some 270 unidentified bodies have already been buried.

Bharatpur, a city located in the lower reaches of the Narayani River, is situated about 200 kilometers away from the areas hardest hit by the catastrophic floods.

However, because the current slows down sharply in the flatlands where the valleys end, bodies continue to pile up—sometimes as many as 100 a day.

[Bhimsen Devkota / Major, Nepalese Army: From this morning until now, we have recovered 10 intact bodies and 2 others. Search operations will not stop here and will continue.]

The maximum capacity of the morgue freezers at Bharatpur Hospital is 24 bodies.

As the remaining bodies are left unattended in corridors and courtyards, the entire city is engulfed in the stench of death.

Families of the missing flock to the reception desk in front of the mortuary all day long.

However, only about 10 bodies have been successfully matched with their families so far.

This is because the bodies have been heavily mutilated after being swept downstream by torrents and mudslides.

To prevent further decomposition and assist with identification, the Nepali government has requested the international community to provide morgue freezers and DNA analysis equipment.

Video by Lee Seung-yeol | Design by Lee Jun-ho
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.