Nepal holds day of mourning for more than 1,300 killed in floods

What the report says

Nepal is observing a national day of mourning for the victims of last month’s catastrophic floods, with government offices and overseas missions flying the flag at half-mast. The day falls 13 days after the disaster, which the Ministry of Home Affairs said marks the final day of mourning in the Hindu tradition. Search and rescue operations are still under way, so officials said no wider public ceremonies were planned.

According to Al Jazeera’s report, the floods were triggered on August 26 when a glacier collapse sent a wall of mud and rock into a river on the Himalayan border between Nepal and China’s Tibet region. The disaster has killed at least 1,380 people and left more than 5,500 missing. In recent days, rescuers have recovered or saved a small number of people, including workers from hydropower tunnels and a Nepali woman pulled from her buried home.

President Ram Chandra Paudel is touring affected areas and assessing damage, while relatives of missing people gathered in Kathmandu to press for faster search efforts. Many of the missing were working at hydropower sites along the Bhotekoshi River and nearby projects, where debris and floodwater buried structures and tunnels. Family members described long delays in rescue work and said they were still waiting for news.

The losses have wider significance because hydropower is a major part of Nepal’s development plans, and the disaster has disrupted that sector as well as local communities. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States have joined the effort, underscoring the scale of the emergency.