More than 200 school students have gone missing in Nepal’s devastating floods. The country’s Ministry of Education says at least 19 schools have been damaged across the three hardest-hit districts.
The information was disclosed in a BBC report Monday, August 31.
According to the ministry’s latest data, nine of the damaged schools were completely destroyed, and seven more were partially damaged. Teachers and students from several schools remain unaccounted for.
The Ministry of Education also said roughly 20 students were swept away by floodwaters.
Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts were hit hardest by the devastating flood. Several schools in these two districts were submerged by floodwater or buried under mud. These schools had a combined enrollment of 2,425 students.
One school authority said a bus carrying one of their students was also swept away by the floodwaters.
The BBC’s South Asia visual journalism team used satellite imagery to identify the locations of flood-damaged schools.
Meanwhile, following the devastating flash flood on the Nepal-Tibet border, more than 900 people remain trapped in tunnels and underground facilities at six hydropower projects in the country, Nepal’s disaster management authority has said. The death toll in the country has risen to 919.
A further 16 deaths have so far been recorded on the Tibetan side of the border. More than 4,247 people remain missing in Nepal, including 592 foreign nationals. Another 546 remain missing in Tibet.
Nepal had earlier said it did not need foreign assistance for search and rescue operations. However, it is receiving expert assistance from neighboring India and China to rescue people from hydropower project tunnels.