Families in Nepal held symbolic funerals Wednesday for relatives still missing a week after deadly flash floods swept away villages and homes in the Himalayan region.
Emergency teams have recovered more than 1,100 bodies and nearly 5,000 people are missing after the gigantic wave of freezing water, rocks and debris triggered by a high-altitude glacial collapse roared down the China-Nepal border on Aug. 26.
After days of searching shelters and mortuaries, relatives of some of the missing lost hope and began conducting last rites, burning straw effigies in Hindu rituals.
"We had to do this to set his soul free, so that he is at peace and happy wherever he is," said Dolma Newar Tamang, flanked by her sobbing son, at a funeral for her husband.
He had been en route to China when the disaster struck.
