Bagmati Province
Search for missing passengers sees little progress
Reach and Rescue Underwater Inspection Cameras, water boats, and divers are being used to find the missing victims.Ramesh Kumar Paudel & Angad Dhakal
Search and rescue operations for the missing passengers and the two buses swept away by a landslide on Friday morning continued on Saturday.
Despite arduous efforts from personnel of the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, and Nepal Army since early morning on Saturday, only the body of one passenger was found.
The search and rescue teams who had worked the whole day on Friday halted their operations later in the evening.
According to Chitwan Chief District Officer Indradev Yadav, the body of Hrishipal Sah, a resident of the Indian state of Bihar, was recovered from Golaghat, Chitwan.
“His family members have identified the body,” Yadav said.
The chief district officer claims that the country's entire available resources and manpower trained in water-induced disasters have been used in the search operation. However, the whereabouts of the vehicles, the actual number of passengers aboard the vehicles, and their details are still unknown.
At least 54 people went missing after two passenger buses—Kathmandu-bound Angel Deluxe Bus and a Ganapati Deluxe Bus, en route to Gaur of Rautahat district from Kathmandu—were swept away by a mudslide into the rain-swollen Trishuli River near Simaltal along the Narayanghat-Mugling road section at around 3:30am on Friday.
There were 24 passengers on Angel Deluxe Bus and 27 on the other, Yadav said.
“It has been found that there were more passengers than initially mentioned on the booking receipt. Attempts to find their details are underway,” he added.
Reach and Rescue Underwater Inspection Cameras, water boats, and divers are being used to find the missing victims.
Here are some photos of the rescue and search operation captured by Post photojournalist Angad Dhakal.