South Korean teams expand search for missing nationals after Nepal floods

SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean corporate response team continued their search Sunday for nine nationals missing since devastating floods hit Nepal last month, officials said.

Four teams comprised of a total of 46 personnel were sent by Korea South-East Power Co. to conduct a ground search in mountainous terrain around the construction site where the nine were working when massive floods and landslides struck the area near the Nepal-Tibet border on Aug. 26.

The number of search personnel was nearly doubled from two days ago, when two teams comprising a total of 25 people were sent to the scene.

"We are pinning our hopes on the possibility that the missing fled to the highlands at the time of the accident and are carrying out search operations focused on mountainous areas," an official of Korea South-East Power said.

The company has also been using drones fitted with thermal imaging and infrared cameras, as well as search dogs, to aid the effort.

Doosan Enerbility Co. separately sent one helicopter and two drones to search the main camp of the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower plant construction site in Rasuwa District.

The nine missing are six employees of Doosan Enerbility and three employees of Korea South-East Power.

The Korea Disaster Relief Team, dispatched by the government to support search-and-rescue operations, also conducted its own search in areas close to where the nine went missing.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met with his Nepali counterpart, Shisir Khanal, to request the country's special attention and support for the search effort, according to Cho's office.

The minister, who arrived in Nepal the previous day on a three-day visit, expressed his sympathies over the immense damage caused by the flood, as well as the deep concerns about the nine missing South Koreans.