A quick-thinking teacher has been credited with saving more than 1,600 children after devastating floods in Nepal triggered a landslide that swept away their school.
Rajendra Dawadi, principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in the Trishuli valley of north-central Nepal, said he received a warning call from a friend on Wednesday morning, who told him that a village five miles upstream had been swallowed by the river.
By then, around 900 pupils had already reached the school, while another 700 children were still travelling there on foot and by bus.
Moments later, a parent alerted him that the water was surging rapidly towards the school, despite the building standing about 200ft above the river.
The emergency unfolded as catastrophic landslides and flash floods hit Nepal on Wednesday, killing 734 people and leaving 2,498 missing. Authorities have since warned that further flooding could strike today and urged people in affected districts to stay on high alert.
Among those believed to be unaccounted for are 33 British nationals, including two teenagers — a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy.
Mr Dawadi, 47, acted with only seconds to spare. One 16-year-old pupil, Yunisha, said she and her friends “survived by just 10 seconds”.
The English teacher first phoned the drivers of the school buses still heading towards the site, managing to reach all but one, and instructed them to turn back immediately.
Rajendra Dawadi, the principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli secondary school in the Trishuli valley of north-central Nepal, saved the lives of more than 1,600 children in the floods
An aerial view of the destruction along the Trishuli River corridor. The school is circled in red
What the school used to look like, before it was completely destroyed in the Nepal floods
The water had already started entering the school grounds when he spotted the last bus, which he told to turn around. ‘It got to the other side just as the bridge collapsed,’ he told The Times.
He then turned his focus to the children inside the school, who had realised they were in danger.
‘One girl had a panic attack, so we put her on the back of a motorbike. The rest I sent uphill on foot, then followed,’ the teacher said.
The terrified children ran up the hill, where they took shelter under a bodhi tree.
As they were evacuating to higher ground, Mr Dawadi could see a hostel building about 100 metres from the river being engulfed by water.
His quick thinking saved 1,643 children and all but one member of staff.
Santos Pariyar, 32, a social history teacher who was new at the school, had come in early that day to teach extra classes and was washed away by the floods.
Student Yunisha described running up a narrow route behind the school with other children, telling the BBC: ‘Within no time, the bazaar was swept away in front of my eyes.’
She said her family spent hours trying to contact her after hearing news of the flood. Her mother Sabina Shrestha said: ‘I was panicking. I tried multiple calls to my daughter and her father, but both were not reachable.’
The family eventually managed to get through to Yunisha, but felt anxious until she returned home three days later.
More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far. Last night, the Nepali army inserted a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where workers are understood to be trapped.
The home minister, Sudan Gurung, said: ‘We have already started sending air through the small opening, and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside.’
More than 100 workers could still be alive inside the tunnels, with rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites.
The chunk of ice and rock said to have snapped off and triggered the flash floods had an estimated area of nearly 50 acres, according to Daniel Shugar, a geomorphologist at the University of Calgary.
It plunged 1,200 metres down the north face of Langtang Lirung peak into the upper gorge of the Lhende Khola river, near the Tibetan border.
Authorities in Nepal warned of possible fresh flooding today after water levels rose in the Bhotekoshi River.
Locals were sent flood warning notices on their phones this morning as rescue crews worked to clear a major highway connecting Kathmandu to one of the areas worst hit by Wednesday’s catastrophic floods.
In the town of Galchhi, a group of residents sought higher ground on a nearby bridge and watched as the river swept through.
The combined toll in Nepal and Tibet rose to 750 people dead and more than 3,000 missing after the latest updates today.
Nepal’s disaster agency said the death toll had climbed to 734 with 2,498 people missing, while Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, including more than 100 Nepalis and people from over 12 countries.
The country’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.
Damaged homes in Trishuli Bazar following the flash flood, in Nuwakot district, Nepal
Mr Dawadi is pictured, right, outside the school before tragedy struck
Devi Ghat town was torn to shreds by the floods, with livestock left rotting on top of the mud
Devi Ghat was devastated by the floods which killed hundreds of people and left thousands missing
Dramatic footage showed the moment hikers witnessed a giant glacier collapse in the Himalayas
The video, filmed by a Chinese tour guide in Tibet, shows huge chunks of ice breaking away from a ridge on Langtang Lirung peak, on the Nepali side of the border
It came after Chinese authorities informed their Nepalese counterparts of increased water flow upstream.
But residents of the flood-hit villages said they were struggling to make sense of near-constant alarms they have received since the initial floods.
Resident Govind Shreshta said: ‘Sometimes they say a flood is coming, then we have to run again to higher ground, even at night. There is also rain.
‘It’s really difficult for me. I have a 72-year-old father and 70-year-old mom. I must carry them and I am exhausted.’
Large concrete and smaller suspension bridges were destroyed, leaving communities on the other side of the river with less easy access.
Prithvi Highway is a crucial supply route for food, fuel and other goods entering Kathmandu from other parts of the country.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said today that his country will send a specialized disaster search-and-rescue team to Nepal to assist with relief efforts and help evacuate Malaysians affected by the disaster. Malaysia has also pledged $1million in financial aid to Nepal.
Last night, dramatic footage showed the moment hikers witnessed the giant glacier collapse in the Himalayas, triggering the catastrophic flash floods and mudslides.
The video, filmed by a Chinese tour guide in Tibet, shows huge chunks of ice breaking away from a ridge on Langtang Lirung peak, on the Nepali side of the border.
Hikers reported hearing a huge crack before ice, rock and debris plunged into the valley below, sending an enormous cloud of dust billowing into the air.
The glacier collapse triggered a landslide which formed a lake in the valley below, before a torrent of water and debris surged through the mountain river system towards the Gyirong border crossing.
A second video shows debris racing down the mountainside immediately in the aftermath of the collapse, marking the beginning of the disaster that would devastate communities downstream.
