Korean rescue team lands in Kathmandu, heads straight for flood zone

A 44-member disaster relief team with 1,000 pieces of search and rescue equipment touched down on Wednesday to search Nepal's flood-hit areas for victims, including nine missing Koreans.

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Members of the Korea Disaster Relief Team move equipment to vehicles after arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on Sept. 2.

The Korea Disaster Relief Team landed in Nepal on Wednesday and set out the same day for the base camp it will work from, a day earlier than planned.

The team had been due to leave for the camp on Thursday. It settled instead on Batar after judging on the ground that the site would serve best, and decided to move down that day.

An Air Force KC-330 Cygnus multirole tanker carrying the team touched down at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu at about 6:27 a.m. on Wednesday.

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Lee Kyoo-ho, director-general for development cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is leading the 44-member team, which draws its personnel from the ministry, the Korea International Cooperation Agency and the National Fire Agency. Five rescue dogs were sent with the team.

The team brought a DNA identification unit and DNA kits, drones and endoscopic equipment for inspecting tunnels. In all it carried about 1,000 pieces of search and rescue equipment.

It will work with Nepali authorities to search for victims of the flooding that struck on Aug. 26, among them nine Koreans who have been out of contact since.

Nepal asked Korea to send an emergency relief team to support search and rescue in the affected areas. Korea is the third country to deploy a team, after India and China.


BY SHIN HYE-YEON [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

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