The call that chilled Devki Adhikari was brief and came at 9:30 am on Thursday. In it, she could hear her family in Bhopal frantically telling them about the flash floods in Nepal and that they were seeking higher ground.

“They told me that while climbing up a hill to save their lives. They tried taking shelter at the house of a local, which later got partially submerged in the flood. They said, ‘The house is half submerged. We will not survive now. Take care of our children,” Devki recalls her family saying.

Brothers Krishna-Radhika Khanal and Ramchandra-Bhavati Khanal Adhikari and their families were part of a group of 29 people who had gone to Gosainkunda pilgrimage in Nepal for Sawan Purnima. They were an extended family spread across neighbouring households and localities — brothers and their wives, sisters and brothers-in-law, and other relatives.

Story continues below this ad

On Thursday morning, the Adhikari family had the last call from their relatives, telling them they had been sheltering on the roof of a house.

None of the 29 in that group has since been traceable, with their families now anxiously waiting for word. “The line remained connected, but the voices stopped. There was no response when the family tried to speak to them,” he says.

“There has been no contact after that. In all, 29 people had gone — all of them known to us. So far, we have not received updates on any of them,” she said.

The death toll from the flash floods in Nepal and Tibet has climbed to 538, while 977 remain missing. Around 3,742 people have been rescued. During a media briefing, the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that 400 Indians on the Chinese side are safe.

Story continues below this ad

Some 320 Indians and over 100 people of Indian origin remain unaccounted for.