Nepal arranges mass burial for flash flood victims

In south-central Nepal's Chitwan district, authorities are carrying out mass burials of unidentified bodies as concerns for health risks mount.

This as more bodies are swept downstream following the the devastating flash floods at the Nepal-China border last Wednesday. In Xizang Autonomous Region, also known as Tibet, workers are preparing traditional burial rituals as the disaster edges close to a one-week mark.

Nepal's disaster agency says 987 deaths had been counted in that country, with still close to 4,000 people missing. Rescue efforts continue in Nepal, including at a flooded power

plant where many may still be trapped days after devastating flash floods at the China-Nepal border.

Rescuers work through the night in hopes of finding signs of life. In Nuwakot, traces of the floods' devastation remain brutally evident. Those fortunate enough to survive look on at what remains of their destroyed homes.

Authorities in Nepal's Chitwan are performing mass burials, as many cadavers had been carried hundreds of kilometres downstream by the Bhotekoshi River from the flood's epicentre and in various states of decomposition by the time they were recovered, posing health risks.

Workers preserve DNA samples and record other identifying details,with each body assigned a reference number. Once families are able to verify the identity, they will be allowed to exhume the remains later for necessary funeral rituals, officials say.

The issue is particularly sensitive in Nepal, a predominantly Hindu nation where the dead are traditionally cremated.

Near the Gyirong Port in Xizang, rescuers hold a ceremony for those who lost their lives as the disaster approaches its seventh day. They observed a moment of silence before forging ahead with their rescue and recovery efforts.

More personnel and relief supplies have been rushed to the area, with eight high-risk geological points identified in the preliminary risk assessment of the mudslide zone.