Nepal death toll crosses 1,000 as rescuers race to find workers trapped in mud-filled tunnels

The death toll in Nepal from devastating floods on the border with Tibet has crossed 1,000, according to the country’s disaster agency.

More than 3,900 people remain missing – of whom more than 600 are workers believed to be trapped in a vast network of mud-filled tunnels at hydropower sites along Trishuli River.

Engineers have been pumping air into the tunnels – and while a team did manage to gain entry to one of them, it withdrew after finding no-one there. 

“I wish we could find him. I wish he would come home,” Anushila Bhandari, wife of Aurus Bhandari, a 33-year-old engineer missing on a project site, told BBC Nepali.

Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on Monday that 279 people had been rescued from the sites.

The rescue operation is being spearheaded by an international team made up of Chinese and Nepalese military personnel, while experts from India, Korea and Australia are also involved.