Nepal school principal saves 900 students 15 minutes before flash flood; death toll reaches 903

After the devastating flash flood in Nepal, hope for survivors is fading. More than 1,000 people are still missing. WELT correspondent Padma Rao reports on the difficult rescue efforts on the ground.

The death toll in Nepal and Tibet has risen to over 900. A school principal told the BBC that he was warned 15 minutes before the flood — and brought his students to safety in time.

Quick-Thinking Principal Saves Approximately 900 Students

A school principal in Nepal apparently saved the lives of around 900 students through an immediate evacuation. He also managed to redirect school buses carrying hundreds more children on their way to school in time.

"I learned about the flood wave through phone calls about 15 minutes before it actually hit our school," said Rajenda Dawadi, principal of the secondary school in the town of Trishuli Baraar, according to the German Press Agency. The BBC and the British newspaper "Daily Mail" initially reported on the rescue.

"I told myself: If there is no flood, we lose a school day. But if there is a flood, we all lose our lives," Dawadi recounted.

The 900 children at the school fled on foot and some by bus. Panic briefly broke out. A student who fainted was brought to safety on a moped.

"If we had made the decision to flee ten minutes later, all of us — including the students and myself — would not be able to speak to you today," the BBC quoted the principal as saying.

Student Recounts Narrow Escape

One of the rescued students, 16-year-old Yunisha, told the broadcaster that they were able to get to safety only seconds before the flood wave hit. She and others ran up a muddy path behind the school as the town behind them was already being destroyed by the masses of water and debris.

Almost nothing remained of the school building. A teacher and the caretaker, who quickly tried to close the doors, lost their lives.

Death Toll and Missing Persons Figures

Meanwhile, the number of recovered fatalities from the devastating flood disaster in Nepal has risen to 903, according to the disaster management authority of the Himalayan state. Together with the officially confirmed figures from the disaster area in China, at least 919 people have lost their lives in the flash flood on Wednesday.

The number of missing persons in Nepal jumped significantly to 4,247, including 592 foreigners. In China, 546 people are registered as missing, including three Germans.

The bodies are being recovered, in some cases many kilometers downstream. Source: Navesh Chitrakar/REUTERS

Survivors search in Devighat, Nepal for belongings that can still be saved. Source: ARUN SANKAR/AFP

Ongoing Rescue Efforts

Thousands of rescue workers continue to be deployed in the flood area in southwestern Tibet and the affected regions in Nepal to find and recover victims. According to Nepalese authorities, many bodies were found in the south of the country, dozens of kilometers away from the actual flood areas.

For the first time since the flood disaster, authorities in Tibet named the countries of origin of the victims.