Kathmandu, Sept 7: Five hundred and eighty-seven foreign tourists from 34 countries have gone missing due to the floods in Rasuwa’s Bhotekoshi river. According to the information shared by the Department of Tourism, 587 foreign tourists from 34 countries went missing in the Bhotekoshi flood on August 26.
Suraj Ghimire, the information officer at the Department of Tourism, said that tourists who went for pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar and attend the Janai Purnima religious fair through various companies have gone missing. Among the missing foreign tourists, 256 are men, 329 women, and two others whose gender is not known.
The majority of the missing foreign nationals are from the neighbouring country, India.
According to the information provided by the Department, 184 Indian national are missing. Besides this, 33 Australians, two Belarusians, 30 Canadians, one Finn, four French, eight Germans, one Hungarian, two Irish, one Israeli, one Lithuanian, 55 Malaysians, and two Dutch people are missing.
Similarly, among the missing foreigners are five from New Zealand, two from Portugal, eight from Russia, nine from Singapore, six from South Africa, two from Spain, 54 from Ukraine, 32 from the UK, 67 from the US, five from Japan, one from the Philippines, three from Kazakhstan, two from Belgium, and one from Sweden.
Likewise, 33 tourists from Latvia, one from Switzerland, two from Italy, 26 from China, one from Vietnam, one from Estonia and two from Poland have gone missing.
A total of 188 tourists from Nepal have also gone missing in the floods. According to the Department, among the missing Nepalis, 161 are men and 27 women. Spokesperson Ghimire said that among the missing are Nepalis who went as helpers for foreign tourists and those who went for pilgrimage visit to Kailash Mansarovar and Gosainkunda.
The government has also continued rescue operations amidst the disaster. So far, the Department has reported the successful rescue of 307 foreign tourists. Among those rescued, 254 are men and 53 are women.
Similarly, out of those who lost contact after the flood, seven people (two men, four women, and one other) have now been reached. The local administration and security agencies have sped up the search for the missing and the relief efforts.
