Open this photo in gallery:
Rescue personnel walk past a helicopter carrying flood survivors at an army rescue camp in Trishuli Batar, Nepal, on Aug. 27.Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images
Twelve religious pilgrims from Canada were among a group of 80 travellers at an immigration control building on the Tibet-Nepal border when Wednesday’s flash floods washed away the facility, organizers of the trip say.
It is unclear whether they are among the 30 total missing Canadian nationals cited on Thursday by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand in a statement.
“Given the extremely difficult circumstances on the ground, this number may fluctuate as new information comes in,” Ms. Anand said.
Nepalese authorities have listed 25 Canadians among the missing foreign visitors.
Police in Nepal report more than 360 people were killed and more than 1,400 are still missing after a torrent of water and mud several storeys high swept through communities, destroying buildings and bridges.
Graphic content: Dramatic CCTV video shows massive destruction from a landslide that swept through the China-Nepal border.
Reuters
The pilgrims, whose trip was organized by the India-based Isha Foundation, had visited Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in Tibet.
They reached the immigration centre at Tibet’s Gyirong Port on Wednesday morning. The building is now gone, and there has been no contact with the group, Isha’s spiritual leader, Jaggi Vasudev, who is known as Sadhguru, said in a video posted to his Instagram account.
“We have no any kind of official confirmation of any kind. But looking at the scale of destruction. It looks bad,” Sadhguru said in the video, while people could be heard sobbing in the background.
“The same building where we were for the immigration just a week ago – that entire building is washed away. And part of the town is washed away.”
Explainer: What to know about Mount Kailash, a sacred site for pilgrims missing after floods in Nepal and Tibet
Sadhguru said the group leader sent a message at 9:05 a.m. to inform organizers that the pilgrims had arrived at immigration control.
Shortly after, however, the tragedy struck, Isha Foundation representative Maa Gambhiri told the Indian agency Asian News International.
“Within 10 minutes, when we tried to contact them again, they were not reachable. So this entire tragedy that happened was within those 10 minutes and we lost complete touch with the entire group.”
Because the group leader’s Nepalese phone could not be contacted, Sadhguru feared that the pilgrims did not cross the border in time. “If he had crossed over, his Nepal phone should have become active.”
Sadhguru said he tried unsuccessfully to reach the site of the disaster to find out more. “All phones are off, all telecommunications are down. Roads are blocked. We’re unable to go there”
The missing group featured people of 18 different nationalities.
Ms. Gambhiri said previous pilgrims from Isha had encountered challenges but never something so cataclysmic.
“At smaller scales, yes, which are manageable, you know, within one or two hours. A landslide gets cleared or you’re stuck in some day, maybe for half an hour, and then you move again, but never at this scale.”
With a report from The Canadian Press