‘No chance’ of finding 150 buried in landslide

There is no chance of finding any of the more than 150 people who are believed to have been buried by a massive landslide in northern Nepal, an official said yesterday, as rescuers struggled to dig through piles of rock, mud, and trees.

Rescuers have so far recovered only eight bodies since the landslide early on Saturday blocked a mountain river, causing the water to form a lake that was threatening to burst and sweep several villages. Fresh rainfall yesterday hampered search attempts.

“We have no chance of finding any of the missing people alive under this pile of debris,” said Yadav Prasad Koirala, who heads the government’s Department of Natural Disaster Management. “We have names of 159 people who are believed to be missing and buried, but there could be even more people.”

Koirala said it was even difficult for bulldozers and heavy equipment to move the debris that crushed dozens of houses in the village of Mankha, about 120km east of Katmandu, Nepal’s capital.

Gopal Parajuli, the chief government administrator in the area, said the water level and mud was making the rescue work difficult, and that army troops used explosives to try to alleviate a dangerous buildup of water.

The controlled explosions managed to knock down part of an earth wall that had blocked a river and created a temporary dam, allowing some water to flow out, but much of it still remained trapped, posing an immediate threat to downstream villages as far away as India, Parajuli said.

He said the amount of water flowing out of the dam and pouring in was almost the same yesterday morning as the previous day.

Landslides are common in mostly mountainous Nepal during the rainy season, which runs from June through September.