Families are waiting desperately for news of missing loved ones after losing contact with them during the devastating Nepal-China floods.
New Zealander Rajeev Reddy hasn’t heard from his sister since Tuesday, when she messaged to say she was heading to the Nepal-China border on a hiking trip with friends.
“The whole family is feeling very scrambled,” Reddy told CNN.
“Her children will be waiting for their mum to come home.”
Rajeev Reddy
Suhasini Reddy Kandimalla, 44, was due to travel to the border by road for an immigration appointment on Wednesday morning before continuing to the Outer Kora trail in Tibet.
Instead, on Thursday, the organizers of the tour group got in touch to say that all 31 members set to go on the trip were unaccounted for.
The mother of two children, ages 4 and 16, is a keen hiker, and had already planned other trips back home in New Zealand. She also hoped to hike Mount Everest next year, Reddy said.
“The whole family is reaching out to relatives and contacts in Nepal for any information,” Reddy added. “We hope we can get her back soon.”
Asmita Dahal, from Nepal, said her family is “hoping for a miracle” that her younger brother will return home safely.
The last thing Suman Dahal, 21, said to his sister on Wednesday was “see you in the morning.” He’d just finished work with a tour group at Sonam Guest House in Timure, a Nepali border town in the Rasuwa district.
That night, when the group left to cross into China, Dahal stayed behind to get ready to return home to Kathmandu, but he has been unreachable ever since.
“His number has stopped working, his phone is switched off and we have no idea where he is,” Asmita Dahal told CNN.
“We are worried his bus might have been swept away in the flooding, we just don’t know.
“We are so, so worried, but we are hoping for a miracle.”