Nepal Rapid Response Team Begins Full-Scale Search as Death Toll Exceeds 1,000

[Anchor]

It has been a week since the massive floods struck Nepal. The South Korean government's rapid response team is continuing search and rescue operations on the ground to locate nine South Koreans with whom contact has been lost. Meanwhile, the death toll from the floods has surpassed 1,000.

Reporter Yu Deok-gi has the details.

[Reporter]

The government's rapid response team has launched full-scale search operations around the water-blocking dam and camp area, which are believed to be where the nine South Koreans with whom contact was lost were staying when the massive floods occurred.

The nine members of the rapid response team, who arrived in Dhunche near the accident site yesterday (the 31st) after traveling for about 10 hours, conducted ground searches immediately upon arrival using drones brought directly from South Korea. Today, they are conducting joint aerial and ground searches with the Nepalese military.

Footage filmed after descending to the site near the hydroelectric power plant under construction by a South Korean company has also been released.

Mud and gravel were piled up with water on the ground, and the wheels of dump trucks and ready-mix concrete trucks were half-submerged.

Business buildings in the area searched today appeared relatively undamaged.

Today, marking a week since the massive floods occurred in the border region between Nepal and China, the total death toll in Nepal and China has risen to 1,003, with the number of missing persons tallied at 4,462.

Nepalese authorities are making all-out rescue efforts at the dam construction site in the disaster-hit area, where more than 900 workers are missing.

Inside some tunnels that rescue workers have managed to enter, water and mud are filled up to the ceiling, or entry is only possible by crawling.

Despite desperate rescue efforts, news of survivors being found has not yet been reported.

As a large number of bodies are being recovered mainly around riverbanks and downstream, Nepalese authorities are temporarily burying them to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

The Nepal Red Cross Society stated that more than 90,000 people have been affected by this disaster, and the UN stated that hygiene support and drinking water supply are urgently needed for more than 65,000 people immediately.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol, Footage Provided by: Government Joint Rapid Response Team)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.