34 Australians Missing in Nepal Floods as Officials Report 'Very Limited' Information
Foreign Minister Penny Wong says at least 34 Australians on pilgrimages and tours are missing after deadly Himalayan floods left more than 1,000 unaccounted for across Nepal and Tibet.
SYDNEY, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Australia Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday at least 34 of its citizens on pilgrimages and tours in Nepal were missing following deadly floods, but information there was "very limited".
More than 1,000 people including at least 600 foreigners are missing across Nepal and China's Tibet, authorities said on Thursday, after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river, sending catastrophic floods through towns and valleys.
Wong said at least 34 Australians were among the hundreds missing. "We understand these Australians are part of separate pilgrimage and tour groups," she told a news conference on Thursday.
"At this stage, access and information are very limited given the scale of disaster ... we are urgently seeking to confirm the welfare and whereabouts of Australians."
Himalayan Glacier, a tourism agency operating in the area, confirmed 15 of the missing Australians were on a religious tour to Mount Kailash it was organising. The group also included people from India, the U.S., Canada and Singapore.
"They were on a pilgrimage. They were planning to enter to the China Tibet and go to the Mount Kailash and (Lake) Manasarovar, which is one of the holiest landmarks on earth," Chief Executive Sagar Pandey told Reuters.
All 15 were Indian-Australians, with the youngest an 11-year-old boy, he said.
Pandey said he had flown over the flood zone by helicopter and believed there was only a "1% chance" of survival.
"There are no human-made things, no human settlement left. Everything is just flat ... I believe that everybody is gone."
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal and Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Lincoln Feast.)
