[Anchor]

It has been six days since the massive floods struck Nepal. To locate the nine South Korean nationals with whom contact remains lost, the joint government rapid response team is moving to the expected disappearance site via overland routes. Due to the floods in Nepal, the confirmed death toll has surged to a total of 919, with the number of missing persons rapidly increasing to nearly 4,800.

Reporter Yu Deok-gi has the details.

[Reporter]

The joint government rapid response team is moving via overland routes to the location estimated to harbor the nine South Korean nationals who have lost contact, local time today (the 31st).

Yesterday, helicopter searches fell through after the Nepalese military authorities did not grant flight clearance. Consequently, the government response team determined they could reach the target search area within a day and decided to move overland to begin the search.

If the overland approach succeeds, it will mark the first ground search operation for the nine missing South Korean nationals in six days since the massive floods occurred.

[Cho Hyun-moon, Head of the National 119 Rescue Headquarters, Korea National Fire Agency: We are going to the site to gather search intelligence. We will pay close attention to safety and do our utmost to ensure swift search and rescue operations.]

The response team has applied for permission from Nepalese authorities to utilize drones for searches after entering via overland routes.

They are also continuously requesting cooperation from the Nepalese police for search and rescue operations focusing on areas where the missing South Koreans are presumed to be located.

As of today, the sixth day since the massive floods, the death toll compiled by both Nepal and China has surged to 919, with 4,793 people reported missing.

Nepalese authorities are concentrating their search and rescue capabilities on the hydroelectric power plant site where more than 900 workers are missing.

On the night of the 29th, local time, Nepalese rescuers successfully entered the tunnel of the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric power plant, where more than 100 people are estimated to be isolated. While they are supplying food and injecting oxygen to search for survivors, no news of rescue has been reported yet, and it is known that one body has been recovered.

As morgues have reached full capacity, Nepalese authorities temporarily buried nearly 200 unidentified bodies over the course of two days.

(Video by: Seol Chi-hwan, Kang Si-woo | Video Editing: Lee So-young)