Two men have been arrested in Nepal for stealing gold earrings from the body of a flood victim, as the death toll from massive flooding climbs past several hundred with more than 1,000 still missing. Video of the theft spread on social media, triggering public outrage.
Police in Chitwan arrested the two men on charges of stealing jewelry from a flood victim's body, according to Indian outlet Moneycontrol and local reports on the 27th.
The case came to light through a video posted on social media. The footage showed two men using long wooden poles to move a body floating in water.
One man propped up the neck of the body with two poles while the other grabbed the hair and pulled a gold earring from the ear. The video also captured several bystanders watching without intervening.
As the video circulated widely, police traced the identities of the men. The two were apprehended near the Pokhara bus park in Bharatpur and handed over to the Chitwan District Police Office. Police are investigating the circumstances of the theft and whether others were involved.
"We will not tolerate inhumane acts such as looting targeting victims or the dead in the wake of a disaster," Chitwan police said. They also asked residents to report any information or evidence of theft or looting during rescue operations.
The body is believed to have been swept into the Narayani River by the massive landslides and flooding that struck the border area between Nepal and China's Tibet on the 26th. Recovery of bodies and searches for the missing are continuing along the Narayani and Trishuli rivers.
The human toll from the disaster continues to mount. At least 392 people had died and about 1,400 were missing in Nepal and China as of the morning of the 28th, according to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post and other outlets. In Nepal, 389 people died and at least 910 remain unaccounted for, while China reported three deaths and 558 missing. It is unclear whether the two countries' figures include overlapping counts.
Among those missing on the Nepali side, 540 are foreign nationals from more than 20 countries, according to the Nepal Tourism Board. China reported 260 foreign nationals missing.
Experts at China's Ministry of Natural Resources and Nepali authorities have raised the possibility that a collapsing high-altitude glacier caused the disaster, with a massive block of ice pouring down a valley and setting off debris flows and flooding. Rescue authorities are continuing the search for the missing amid warnings that natural dams formed by landslide-blocked rivers could give way.
