Mass burials of unidentified victims continue in Nepal as death toll exceeds 1,100 one week after flash floods

Nepali families were holding symbolic funeral ceremonies to "liberate the souls" of loved ones missing since deadly flash floods swept away their villages and homes in the Himalayan region a week ago. Emergency teams have recovered more than 1,100 bodies, as nearly 4,000 people remain missing after the gigantic wave of freezing water, rocks and debris triggered by a high-altitude glacial collapse roared down the China-Nepal border on 26 August, causing grave damage to much of what was in its path. After days of searching shelters and mortuaries, relatives of some of the missing lost hope and began conducting last rites.

"We had to do this to set his soul free, so that he is at peace and happy wherever he is," said Dolma Newar Tamang, flanked by her sobbing son, at a funeral for her husband. He had been en route to China when the disaster struck. "I saw the news and called him," she said.

"I called repeatedly, but he never picked up." A week after the colossal disaster, Nepali rescuers remained hopeful about finding survivors, particularly in multiple tunnels of hydropower plants across the region. So far, rescuers have recovered only bodies from tunnels blocked by sludge, but teams were still digging, drilling and blasting through debris in the hopes of reaching any potential survivors. Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said he still hoped some of the thousands of people still reported missing could be alive.

"Miracles do happen," he said in an interview. "At this point, I do not want to completely give up hope." Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah said the catastrophe was "a serious indication that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change". "Climate change is a global contribution, and disaster response is also a global responsibility," he wrote in a post on Facebook.

Scientists say the Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range, are warming rapidly as global temperatures rise, accelerating glacier melt. Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the South and Southeast Asian river valleys below. There is growing anger at the scale of destruction to hit Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million people.

The country has contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, but is among those suffering its consequences. Kathmandu has warned reconstruction costs could run into the "billions of dollars". Nepal's economy is already strained, with limited resources to respond to a disaster of this scale.