Search continues for nine Koreans missing after Nepal flood
Korea’s response team will resume helicopter searches for nine Koreans missing after a catastrophic flash flood in Nepal’s Rasuwa District destroyed roads and bridges.
Lim Sang-woo, center, head of Korea's Disaster Response Team, speaks to reporters at Incheon International Airport on Aug. 27 before the team heads to Nepal to support search and rescue efforts for nine Koreans who remain unaccounted for following massive flooding in the country.
KIM KYEONG-ROK
A Korean response team in Nepal said it will continue search efforts Saturday for nine Koreans still missing after a devastating flash flood, attempting to reach the search site by helicopter after unsuccessful attempts the previous day.
Nine Korean employees of Korea South-East Power and Doosan Enerbility remain unreachable Saturday, following a massive flood along the border between Nepal and the Tibet region of China. They were working at a construction site in Rasuwa District when the floods struck Wednesday.
Ten other Doosan workers who were isolated at different locations have been moved to safety.
A Korean government response team in Kathmandu failed to deploy chartered helicopters to the flood site Friday, where the missing Koreans are believed to be located. Nepali authorities restricted the flights, citing unpredictable weather conditions and the risk of further flooding, a Seoul official said.
The team has rented six helicopters to search for the missing Koreans, as the floods have destroyed roads and bridges.
Lim Sang-woo, head of the rapid response team, vowed to make every effort to ensure swift search and rescue operations.
"We made search attempts for the nine missing individuals with the Nepali military mobilizing its assets, but unfortunately, we need to keep searching," Lim told correspondents in the Nepali capital.
The response team will try to deploy the helicopters again Saturday.
The Nepali military has conducted search operations in and around possible locations using coordinates provided by the response team, but found no signs of the missing Koreans, according to Seoul officials.
Return travel plans for the 10 rescued Koreans have yet to be decided, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said.
"Having been through extreme circumstances, what they need most right now is rest," the official said. "We also need to see whether their health conditions are stable enough for them to travel by air."
The death toll from the catastrophic floods has reached nearly 600, with almost 2,500 others unaccounted for, according to foreign media reports.
Reports said fears of secondary flooding are rising as barrier lakes, formed by debris from a collapsed Himalayan glacier that triggered the initial floods, have started to overflow.
BY YONHAP, YOON SEUNG-JIN [[email protected]]
