Two Israeli nationals have been confirmed as among the around 4,000 people missing following flash floods and mudslides in Nepal last week.
The country’s border region with Tibet has been devastated after a glacier partially collapsed, causing a surge in river levels.
More than 900 people have been confirmed dead, while 4,247 are known to be missing, including 592 foreigners, many of whom travelled from India on a pilgrimage to a local Hindu site.
On Monday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed that two Israeli citizens are among those yet to be located.
One, a 60-year-old man, has not been named, but the ministry identified Katerina Sakovich, a joint Israeli-Belarusian national, as the other missing person.
Sakovich, 41, known to her friends as Katya, was part of a group travelling to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a significant site in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, when the floods hit, according to Kan.
“Israel’s consul in Kathmandu and the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Israelis in Distress Abroad are in continuous contact with her family and are working with the authorities and local officials in efforts to locate her,” said a ministry spokesperson.
Local rescue teams, supported by those from India, South Korea and China (which claims Tibet as part of its territory as a “special autonomous region”), are reportedly having to wade through waist-high mud in the search for survivors.
Chinese state media has reported that, on the Tibetan side of the border, rescuers have made three sweeps of the area affected but found no survivors thus far.
At least three bodies have been pulled from the mud after being found in two flooded tunnels, but one Indian soldier deployed to the area told AFP he was “still hopeful that there are six survivors inside”.
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