Entire City Becomes a 'Giant Morgue' as Bodies Continue to Pile Up

[Anchor]

The death toll from the massive floods has exceeded 1,000, with some 4,400 people still missing. The lower reaches of rivers, where bodies washed downstream are accumulating, have literally turned into a massive morgue. Nepali authorities are collecting DNA samples from hundreds of unidentified bodies before burying them in mass graves.

Here is a report by Kim Young-a.

[Reporter]

An excavator digs up the middle of a jungle.

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

These serve as 'gravestones' to be placed on the graves of unidentified bodies.

[Anil Thapa / Police Inspector, Chitwan]: "The bodies we found were already severely decomposed, making it very difficult to store them in urban areas. So we had no choice but to carry out burial work here."

To ensure families can find them later, the bodies' DNA information is numbered and marked.

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

Bharatpur, a city on the lower reaches of the Narayani River, is located some 200 kilometers away from where the massive floods occurred.

However, because the current slows down sharply in the flatlands where the valley ends, bodies have been piling up—as many as 100 a day.

[Bhimsen Devkota / Major, Nepalese Army]: "From this morning until now, we have recovered 10 intact bodies and another 2 bodies. 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 hallways and yards, the entire city has been 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 were severely damaged while being swept down by rapid currents and debris flows.

The Nepalese government has requested the international community to provide body freezers and DNA analysis equipment to prevent decomposition and help identify the bodies.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-yul, Design: Lee Jun-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.