Nepal Police have arrested two men for allegedly stealing gold earrings from the body of a woman swept downstream during the devastating floods in the Narayani River, after a video showing the incident went viral on social media.
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The two suspects were arrested after police identified them from a 41-second video that showed them pulling the woman’s body from the river before allegedly removing earrings from both her ears. Nepal Police later shared the video, saying the men had been taken into custody for stealing the earrings from the dead woman.
The video shows the two men using wooden planks and the woman’s hair to pull her body out of the water. They then appear to remove earrings from both ears and place them aside. Several people can be seen standing around the scene, with some recording the incident on their phones.
Chitwan Police said its investigation established that the body was that of a woman swept into the Narayani River by the massive floods.
Based on the video, police identified the suspects as 25-year-old Madan Gurung and 38-year-old Umesh Chaudhary. They were arrested near Pokhara Bus Park in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-1 on Thursday, according to Nepali media portal Khabarhub, citing police.
Police said looting or any other inhumane activity targeting victims during the disaster would not be tolerated.
The arrests came as Nepal continues a massive search-and-rescue operation following one of the country’s deadliest flood disasters in years. Flash floods and landslides struck the Nepal-Tibet border region, sweeping away villages, roads, bridges and other infrastructure and leaving more than 1,400 people missing.
The death toll has risen to at least 392, with 389 deaths reported in Nepal and three in Tibet, while hundreds of people remain unaccounted for.
The disaster has also caused extensive destruction on the Chinese side of the border. In Tibet, a powerful mudslide engulfed a multi-storey port building and swept through a bus parking area at the Gyirong Port border crossing.
Mud in the surrounding area was more than 1.5 metres deep on average, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. Roads leading to the border crossing were damaged, while authorities warned that further collapses or landslides could occur as rain continued in the region.
The floods were triggered after a major rock-and-ice collapse in the Himalayas sent a huge surge of water, mud and debris through river systems along the Nepal-China border. Rescue teams have been using helicopters and heavy machinery to search for survivors and recover bodies from areas cut off by the destruction.
The large number of missing people has added to the urgency of the rescue operation, while authorities in Nepal and China are also monitoring the risk of further flooding from debris-dammed rivers and unstable barrier lakes created by the disaster.
