Archived event
Nepal reverses itself, accepts foreign tunnel rescue and DNA experts
This briefing has been overtaken
It was published at 28 August 2026, 8:55 pm NPT and is kept online as the record of what was confirmed at that hour. Figures in it are no longer current.
Read the latest briefing: India's foreign ministry says 320 of its nationals still uncontactable · Current event summary
Nepal's government has reversed an earlier decision and will let India, China, Australia and South Korea send in specialists to help with tunnel rescues and to identify bodies, the Kathmandu Post reports.
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said Nepal has identified three areas where it will accept outside support, though the paper names only two: rescuing people trapped inside hydropower tunnels in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, and DNA and forensic work to identify bodies. "We need to conduct DNA tests on a large number of samples," Khanal said. "Foreign experts will assist us in identifying the bodies promptly so that we can hand them over to their relatives on time."
A senior government official told the paper that Kathmandu had come under heavy pressure from other countries to allow at least search and rescue teams and some experts in, because their own citizens are also among the missing.
As recently as Wednesday and Thursday, Nepal said its own army and police could handle the operation alone and that it did not need outside rescue teams. That position did not hold even a full day.
This is a narrower opening, not a reversal on everyone who offered help. Nepal is still not accepting a broader international search and rescue deployment, only tunnel rescue and DNA identification experts from these four countries.
Sources for this briefing
Written and checked by hand against the sources above. Figures are attributed to the bulletin they came from; where two sources disagreed, the lower confirmed figure was used. If something here is wrong, tell us and it gets corrected or removed.