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Efforts were underway to reopen the Galchhi-Baireni road in Dhading, which was blocked after the flash floods in Rasuwa. The route is a key link between Kathmandu and other parts of Nepal and serves as an important transit corridor for heavy and light traffic, including during regional blockades and disaster-response operations.

The destruction has severely complicated rescue operations. Security personnel and local authorities have been scouring riverbanks and downstream areas for survivors and recovering bodies carried by the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers.

Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal on Thursday held telephone conversations with top officials in the US, the UK and several other countries. They expressed solidarity with Nepal and committed to helping the government in its search and rescue works, Khanal’s office said.

Nepal Police said 137 bodies have been recovered from Chitwan, the highest number among the affected districts. Bodies have also been recovered from Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha, Tanahun and Nawalparasi districts.

At least 44 Nepali Army personnel, 28 Nepal Police personnel and 13 Armed Police Force personnel are among those whose whereabouts remain unknown, officials said.

Around 160 people working at hydropower projects and customs offices have also been reported missing.

The search has extended to hospitals, where hundreds of relatives have gathered to look for family members and friends missing since Wednesday.

At Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, authorities posted lists of people brought to the facility so families could check whether their relatives had been rescued or were receiving treatment. Photographs of those who died were also displayed, while desks were set up to record details of people whose whereabouts remained unknown.

The scenes were similar at Bharatpur Hospital in Chitwan, where families searched for relatives as authorities struggled to cope with the growing number of bodies and the mortuary was reportedly running out of space.

Officials rescued 27 foreign tourists stranded in Rasuwa on Thursday, including 11 Indians, four South Koreans, two Italians and two US citizens. The nationalities of the remaining eight had not been confirmed by the Nepal Tourism Board. They were airlifted to Kathmandu by the Nepal Army.

Most of the Indian tourists affected were travelling towards Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet or Gosainkunda in Nepal’s Bagmati Province.

The disaster could rank among Nepal’s deadliest in many years, with rescuers still unable to reach some areas because of damaged roads, washed-away bridges, deep deposits of mud and debris and the continuing risk of further flooding.