Rescuers recover 11 bodies, only five of them identified so far
Search and rescue operations for the missing passengers and the two buses swept off the major highway connecting the Capital into Trishuli river by mudslides on Friday morning has been ineffective in high current river swollen by monsoon rains.
Search and rescue team of security forces, which has been working tirelessly in monsoon fed water, managed to recover a total of 11 bodies from different locations along the riverbanks by Monday, officials said.
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority in a statement issued on Monday said that about 500 personnels, including 28 divers are assigned to the search operations. Divers are equipped with scuba gears, while other trained rescuers are using 12 rubber rafts in different sections of the river in the search operation.
A mudslide had washed down two passenger buses into Trishuli river in Narayanghat Mugling section on Friday morning. Local authorities said there were at least 65 passengers traveling in a Kathmandu bound bus from Birgunj and one heading to Gaur, Rautahat district from Kathmandu.
Search and rescue operation made little progress on the first two days, as the team mostly concentrated operations in and around the incident site. On Sunday, villagers near Gaidakot, 55km downstream from where the incident site, had reported local authorities about a dead body on the riverbank. Then the search operations were spread to different sections of the river. Rescuers recovered bodies from as far as the areas near the border with India.
Spokesman of Chitwan District Police Office Bheshraj Rijal said that the bodies identified so far include Bikas Pariyar, 22, of Chitwan Madi Municipality-1, Ramit Kushar Majhi, 19, of Sarlahi Barhathwa Municipality-3, Sudeep BK, 23 of Patihani in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-22 and Firoz Rahupat, 17, of Rautahat district.
Similarly, 28-year-old Rishi Pal Sah from Sitamani, and 40-year-old Sajad Ansari from Samparan, Bihar, India have been identified so far.
