Flooding death toll tops 670 as UK rapid response team heads to Nepal

Residents return to their houses to assess the damage following flash flooding in Nuwakot district in Nepal on Saturday (Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP) AP Press Association Reporters 2 minutes ago The death toll from the flooding in Nepal has reached more than 600 ahead of a team arriving from the UK to provide support.

On Saturday, an update from Nepali authorities brought the combined death toll in Nepal and Tibet to 676 with nearly 3,000 people missing.

The latest figures from Chinese state media reported seven people were dead and 554 people were missing in Tibet.

The District Administration Office in the Nepalese district of Chitwan said it had only been able to identify four of the 233 bodies recovered. It said DNA samples were being taken from the bodies which were “in a state of decomposition and no longer identifiable”.

As the rescue operation entered its fourth day, Nepal Army spokesman Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet said helicopter operations had been suspended on Saturday until weather conditions improved.

The rapid deployment team was due to arrive in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on Saturday to provide support for British nationals and their families.

More than 30 British nationals are among hundreds of people missing and feared dead as rescue efforts continue after flooding in the Rasuwa district, which borders China’s autonomous region of Tibet.

The team, consisting of specially trained crisis response staff, will work alongside the British embassy and local authorities.

They will help co-ordinate assistance for British nationals arriving at and departing from the airport, support those seeking information about missing relatives, liaise with local authorities and emergency responders, and reinforce existing consular operations on the ground.

Forming part of the UK’s wider response to the flooding, which includes £5 million of humanitarian support for relief and recovery efforts, the team will also work with families in the UK concerned about loved ones in the affected area.

Mr Basnet said rescue efforts were continuing at a hydropower construction plant, where more than 100 people are believed to be trapped in a mud-filled tunnel.

A damaged house stands amid debris of flash flooding in Nuwakot district in Nepal on Saturday (Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP) AP Rescue efforts had been hampered by fears of more flooding from a lake formed by the glacier collapse which sparked the flooding on Wednesday.

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