'Saved by a mango tree': How a Nepali labourer survived deadly flash flood

Bibek Kumal, a 24-year-old Nepali labourer, narrowly escaped death when a deadly flash flood swept through his village on Wednesday. While working on a toilet pit outside a newly built house, Kumal heard a hissing sound and his four co-workers urged him to flee. By the time he escaped, they had already fled. Kumal's own survival was miraculous, as he had been stuck in a mango tree during the torrential flood.

Speaking from his bed at Kathmandu's National Trauma Centre, Kumal recounted how the water and debris swept him downstream, but the tree saved his life. Had it not been for the tree, he would have been washed away. The flash flooding has claimed at least 95 lives and left hundreds missing in one of Nepal's worst disasters. Rescue efforts have pulled out over 114 survivors, who are receiving treatment at various hospitals in Kathmandu and Rasuwa.

The flood was triggered by the collapse of a mass of mud and rock into a river near the border between Nepal and Tibet. Initial security footage from the Chinese side showed many people fleeing before the disaster, which devastated nearby settlements and infrastructure. The exact cause of the mudslide remains unclear, but a 4.4-magnitude earthquake occurred seven minutes before the footage, as reported by the German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Kumal's survival was a testament to his luck, as he had previously lived through the devastating 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people.