Nepalese authorities have arrested 29 people accused of breaking open bank safes swept away by catastrophic flooding and taking cash from them.
The suspects were arrested in Dhading by a joint team of the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force during search and patrol operations.
Police recovered 9,268,505 Nepalese rupees from the suspects after the safes were carried downstream by the Trishuli River from flood-hit areas in Rasuwa and upstream regions.
The suspects had allegedly been removing money from the damaged safes. They have been taken into custody at the District Police Office in Dhading, where investigations and legal proceedings have begun.
It remains unclear whether the amount recovered represents all the money that was originally inside the safe.
In a separate case, police arrested two men accused of stealing gold earrings from the body of a woman swept away by floodwaters in the Narayani River.
The arrests followed the circulation of a video on social media that allegedly showed the men removing earrings from the woman’s body. The suspects were identified as 25-year-old Madan Gurung and 38-year-old Umesh Chaudhary.
The arrests come as Nepal and China’s Tibet region continue to deal with the aftermath of catastrophic flash floods and landslides along the Himalayan border.
Nepal’s disaster authorities said 675 people had died and 2,498 remained missing in the country. China reported 16 deaths and 546 missing in Tibet, bringing the combined death toll to 691, with more than 3,000 people still unaccounted for.
More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal, while difficult terrain, damaged infrastructure and poor weather have complicated search and rescue operations.
The disaster has devastated communities along major river valleys and left families across the region waiting for news of relatives whose whereabouts remain unknown.
