First Ground Search Yields No Traces; Missing Persons' Families to Hold Press Conference Today

[Anchor]

To find nine South Korean nationals missing in the massive floods in Nepal, the emergency relief team conducted its first-ever ground search near the accident site, but failed to find any traces. The families of the missing persons will hold a press conference today (the 9th).

Reporter Han Sung-hee has the details.

[Reporter]

Soaring cliffs and precariously steep slopes that could collapse at any moment.

This is the area around the powerhouse and the yellow bridge, where it was suggested that the missing South Korean nationals might have sought shelter.

Yesterday morning, our emergency relief team boarded two separate helicopters to attempt to access the site for the rescue and search operation of the nine missing workers.

This is a notoriously difficult terrain where even the Nepalese military had previously only permitted the deployment of drones for safety reasons.

However, difficulties arose right from the start.

One helicopter succeeded in landing at the powerhouse, but ground searches were blocked by the Nepalese military authorities.

In the end, the relief team had to settle for inspecting the area by launching remote drones for nearly two hours.

Another team that landed at a military supply camp 6 kilometers away pushed ahead with the search along broken mountain paths, but ultimately failed to find any traces of the missing persons.

[Lee Gyu-ho / Head of the Korea Disaster Relief Team: We went up to the point where the road was washed away and searched, and looked all along the opposite slope. No unusual signs were found (visually).]

Searching the weir dam tunnel, a key search location, was also a continuous struggle.

[Should we go further into the search or not? Shall we push it with our feet?]

The team members reached the point of swallowing contaminated water or complaining of severe dehydration and abdominal pain, prompting the Nepalese military to declare the end of the search in the weir dam tunnel.

The reasons given were the slim chance of survival and the high risk of secondary collapses.

The official activity period for our relief team runs until the 11th, leaving only two days left, but decisions regarding the extension of the dispatch period or the deployment of a follow-up team have not yet been made.

The families of the missing persons have announced a local press conference this morning.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the Nepal floods has risen to at least 1,401, with 5,326 people listed as missing, including 587 foreigners.

(Photo: Cho Chang-hyun, Yang Ji-hoon | Video Editing: Chae Chul-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.