A British husband desperately searching for his new wife in Nepal has shared the last words she said to him before devastating floodwaters swept through the region: “I love you so much.”
Pramod Poudel, 34, who was born in Nepal, travelled back to the disaster-hit country after his 25-year-old wife, Sumitra, disappeared on Wednesday.
The newlyweds had spoken just hours before a collapsed glacier unleashed torrents of water down the mountains and into villages, leaving widespread destruction along the Nepal-Tibet border.
Officials have so far confirmed 734 deaths, while another 2,498 people remain missing. Among 48 British nationals believed to be unaccounted for are two teenagers: a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy.
Pramod, who runs a food truck, flew to Nepal on Friday to search for Sumitra, as well as his mother, brother and uncle, all of whom are missing after their village was wiped out.
Mr Poudel and Sumitra had married only in June. She had been staying with his family in the village of Sole while he returned home for work.
He told The Sun: “When I last spoke to her, she said to me, ‘how are you? I love you so much’.
“I have not had contact with her since then. It’s devastating — I don’t even know how to explain how I’m feeling right now.”
Nepal-born Pramod Poudel (right), 34, has travelled to Nepal to search for his 25-year-old partner Sumitra, who has been missing since Wednesday
The couple last spoke only hours before a collapsed glacier sent water streaming down mountains and through villages
So far 734 people are confirmed to have died with a further 2,498 missing (the village of Betrawati in Nepal’s Nuwakot district is pictured on Sunday)
A group of people stand in Betrawati in front of buildings destroyed when flash floods tore through the country on Wednesday
‘I’m so worried about her and all my family. I work so hard for them and they are my world.’
Pramod, from Uckfield, East Sussex, moved to Britain when he was 18 after being raised in Nepal.
He is one of many Brits who have been left in agony as a result of the Asian country’s ‘tsunami from the sky’.
The monster mudslide swept away roads, bridges and homes in seconds, while also knocking out power lines and mobile phone masts.
The discovery of a group of 31 tourists, none of whom are British, alive in the district of Rasuwa, raised hopes that all is not lost.
But the death toll this morning rose to 734, with the families of those who remain unaccounted for desperately jetting to Nepal to begin a search for them.
Among them is the wife of 54-year-old Pravin Atmakur, who was leading a group of 77 pilgrims to Mount Kailash in Tibet when the floods struck.
Manjula Atmakur arrived in Kathmandu on Friday morning after travelling from Britain to search for her husband, who has not been heard from since the disaster.
The couple both work as consultant psychiatrists for the NHS, while their son studies at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Mrs Atmakur told the Telegraph in Nepal: ‘I am emotionally broken. I don’t know how my husband is. In which situation. I want him back.’
She added: ‘I came here with the only agenda that I want to take Pravin back home alive.’
Damaged houses stand precariously near the debris-choked Trishuli River
Rescue workers trawl through a mountain side in search of the hundreds missing after the flash floods
Pravin Atmakur was leading a group of 77 pilgrims to Mount Kailash in Tibet when the floods struck
A millionaire family-of-four from Surrey including a former Mrs India UK are also among Britons missing in Nepal
Pictured: Mrs Sahu, a high-flying chemistry graduate from Mumbai who became a banker before moving to Ireland to work for Dell Computers
Nelly Chhetri (pictured), 18, and her mother Yashika Basnet, 56, an NHS worker, had gone on the trip as part of a tour group, and have not been heard from since
Sarada Simkhada, a senior nurse at the Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, left for Nepal last Saturday for a pilgrimage
Mrs Atmakur last spoke to her husband on August 15, when he began the pilgrimage.
She believes he had completed the pilgrimage and was returning from Tibet into Nepal when the floods struck at around 9am on Wednesday.
Nepal is now facing what officials described as a scene of ‘devastation beyond imagination’ after a glacier collapse unleashed a ‘tsunami from the sky’, sending torrents of water crashing through villages and tourist hotspots.
Footage showed the mudslide racing down the Trishuli River valley and through Gyirong Port, a major border crossing between Nepal and Tibet used by thousands of pilgrims travelling to Mount Kailash each year.
Mrs Atmakur learnt of the disaster from her brother-in-law and immediately began preparing to travel to Nepal.
Her 19-year-old son Nalin, who studies engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge, was travelling at the time. She waited for him to return so they could fly out together.
She reached Kathmandu on Friday and went directly to the British embassy, but said she had received little help.
Mrs Atmakur said her husband had devoted much of his life to helping others and that she now wanted authorities to help bring him home.
A millionaire family-of-four from Surrey including a former Mrs India UK are also among Britons missing in Nepal.
Ex-banker and beauty pageant winner Surabhi Sahu, 44, her businessman husband Santosh, 46, their son Spandan, 18, and daughter Syna, 13, had been on an adventure trek across the Nepal-China border.
Mr and Mrs Sahu ran a successful technology company in London together before he set up a thriving pharmaceutical business. The family live in a £1.3million six-bedroom house in Cobham, Surrey.
They travelled to India last week and then on to the Nepalese-Tibetan trek. They were due to return in ten days before the start of the new school year.
Nabhi Das from Streatham in South London also remains unaccounted for
Leena Bector, 53, from Slough, Berkshire, has also not been heard of after travelling to the region to see the Himalayas
Bipin Patel, 66, and Mala Patel, 60, are among those missing after flash floods in Nepal. Issue date: Friday August 28, 2026
A poignant final photograph of the family with their tour group, mostly made up of Britons, shows them smiling beside their bus against the peaks of the Himalayas.
The Alpine Eco Tours group was last heard from as they crossed the frontier from Nepal into Tibet, around the time on Wednesday that a horrifying torrent of ice, mud and rocks engulfed the Gyirong border crossing.
CCTV footage showed people running for their lives as the disaster struck.
Tour organisers have been frantically trying to reach the group ever since. There are hopes the tourists are alive and waiting to be rescued, but phone lines are down and the military has struggled to reach the mountainous area.
The Sahu family were well-travelled and on a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, a religious site for Hindus and Buddhists in Tibet.
Mrs Sahu is a chemistry graduate from Mumbai who became a banker before moving to Ireland to work for Dell Computers.
Her husband Santosh is an Irish citizen, and the family moved to Surrey where they became beacons of their community.
In 2018, Mrs Sahu won the Mrs India UK beauty contest – after being encouraged to enter it by her family – which she described as ‘a dream come true’.
She added it showcased ‘the best in women… not just in respect of physical beauty but in the many other capacities in which they are not always acknowledged or appreciated’.
As well as her successful business career, Mrs Sahu is an avid reader who promotes literature to her legion of Instagram followers. She has posted photos of herself visiting favourite spots of England, including the Cotswolds.
Her former banker husband Santosh has gone from strength to strength and is the founder and chief executive of Charac, a digital platform helping pharmacies improve deliveries to patients.
Their son Spandan is due to start a law degree at Durham University.
A former grammar school pupil and her NHS worker mother are also among those missing after travelling to the region on a pilgrimage.
Nelly Chhetri, 18, and her mother Yashika Basnet, 56, had joined a tour group and have not been heard from since.
Nepalese authorities have declared them missing, and their worried family said they have received no contact from the UK Foreign Office.
Nelly, an ‘ambitious’ former pupil of the Invicta Grammar School for girls, in Maidstone, Kent, hopes to go to university next year, her cousin Nickie Chhetri told Our News Outlet.
She has just completed a sixth-form course in health and social care at Uxbridge College, in London.
Sunil Amin, from Croydon, described the ‘horrible, horrible feeling’ of repeatedly trying to phone his wife, Hema Amin, 63, who was on a pilgrimage with Alpine Eco trek from Nepal to Tibet with her sister.
‘I keep trying to call her. I’ve been trying, trying, trying,’ he said. ‘It just rings out or doesn’t get through. I’m devastated.’
The deadly deluge is one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory
A drone view of a broken bridge and damaged houses after the flash floods and mudslide, at Devighat, Nuwakot district, Nepal
A view of a home damaged by flash flooding in the Devighat area of the Nuwakot district in Nepal
Sarada Simkhada, 55, was also on a pilgrimage, following in the footsteps of thousands of other Hindus up Mount Kailash.
The mountain is a sacred site for both Hindus and Buddhists, and is believed to be the cosmic home of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.
Sarada, a senior nurse who lives in Dartford, had travelled to Nepal on Saturday before she joined other pilgrims.
Her childhood friend Rajendra Pudasaini said she is known for taking part in the community and always ‘working incredibly hard’ at Darent Valley Hospital.
Sarada trained as a nurse in Kathmandu, before moving to London. Her relatives were last in contact with her when she was staying at the Kailash Hotel in Timure on the Nepal-China border, where she was waiting for Chinese customs officers to approve her visa.
Roshan Panday, owner of Fishtail Tours and Travels Group, had a tour group of 27 including Briton Leena Bector, 53, from Slough, and he said ‘no one is answering their phones’.
He said they had sent a video just nine minutes before the disaster struck, adding: ‘Absolutely everything’s under the mud. We tried calling the drivers. We tried calling the guides. We tried calling them all, but no one was answering.’
Ms Bector’s husband, Bhupesh Bector, told The Times he was frantically checking his iPhone to check her location but it had not changed for more than seven hours.
He flew out last night, saying: ‘I know that she’s in Nepal for sure, so even if they find her today or tomorrow, I need to be there.’
Another missing Briton is Nabhi Das, from Streatham in south London, family members confirmed. The University of Kent graduate, originally from Kenya and thought to work in finance, has not been heard from.
The flooding was likely caused by a huge chunk of a glacier that broke off and temporarily dammed a river, according to preliminary investigations by scientists.
That may have led to the backed-up water surging downstream with enormous force a few hours later, they suggested.
Scientists are still piecing together information from satellite and ground-level data to figure out exactly what happened to cause the flood.
The US Geological Survey on Wednesday reported a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse that sent debris flowing downstream with catastrophic impact on communities.
Nepal’s Chitwan district became the site of mass burials for hundreds of unidentified victims on the weekend.
Authorities have dug hundreds of graves at the site – around 200 kilometres from where the floods began – though many bodies are said to be too badly decomposed to be identified.
‘We were left with no other option and had to take this step. Our concern was the risk to public health posed by the rapid decomposition of the bodies,’ said Ganesh Arya, chief district officer of Baratpur, Chitwan.
Authorities buried 96 unidentified bodies in the forest on Saturday and planned to bury more than 100 others on Sunday, as recovery teams continue to retrieve victims from rivers and piles of debris.
