Nepal flash floods: 4 more bodies recovered from Gandak river in UP's Kushinagar

Four more bodies were recovered from the Gandak river in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar district on Sunday after they apparently drifted into Indian territory from Nepal following the devastating floods in the neighbouring country, officials said.

With the latest recoveries, 13 bodies have been found in the district over the past four days. Four of them were recovered on Sunday.

An SDRF team found the bodies of two women and two men near Bhediyari Thokar No. 3 along the Chhitauni embankment, officials said.

The SDRF personnel were monitoring the river in the area when they noticed four bodies floating in the water. They entered the river and brought all four bodies to the bank.

On Saturday, SDRF surveillance teams had found three other bodies floating in the river. Officials said authorities in the neighbouring district of Nepal had been informed about the recoveries.

Sandeep Kumar Singh, SHO of Khadda police station, said the four bodies recovered on Sunday were sent to the mortuary after the required formalities were completed.

The SHO said 13 bodies had now been recovered from the Bhediyari area during the past four days. 

Since the Kushinagar mortuary is already full, the remaining bodies have been shifted to Gorakhpur, Singh said. None of the bodies recovered so far has been identified.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the flash floods in Nepal rose to 788 on Sunday, while more than 2,500 people were still reported missing.

Rescue teams recovered bodies from eight affected districts as they continued search operations for missing people and worked to rescue those stranded on the fifth day after the disaster.

The floods struck northern and central Nepal on August 26 after an ice-rock avalanche linked to a glacial collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border sent large amounts of water, mud and debris downstream. The flooding destroyed towns and villages, damaged key infrastructure and swept away hydropower stations.

Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) confirmed that the death toll had climbed to 788.

The Bhotekoshi river, which flows south from the Himalayan border region, carried the floodwaters downstream and caused widespread destruction on August 26.

On Saturday, the Ministry of External Affairs said more than 275 Indian nationals and 128 people of Indian origin were still missing or could not be contacted in Nepal. On Sunday, the ministry shared a list on X containing the names of 149 people who had been rescued.  (with inputs from PTI)