Nepalese authorities on Tuesday recovered the body of a Spanish tourist found in a river, a Nepal police spokesman said, adding that they were searching for another missing Spanish tourist who was travelling with him.
“Police have recovered a body from the Bhurungdi river” in a mountainous area, said Annapurna Rural Municipality spokesman Bharat Man Gurung, who confirmed that it was a Spanish tourist.
He also added that rescue teams “will continue this Wednesday the search for another missing person”, another Spanish tourist who was travelling with him. “Tomorrow we will resume the search and examine the areas downstream from where the body was found today.” Up to 26 people took part in the operation on Tuesday, which had to be interrupted due to lack of light, the spokesman explained.
A Catalan family reported on Tuesday that they had not been able to contact a 36-year-old man and his 31-year-old partner, residents of Berga and Sant Feliu Sassera (Barcelona) who were on a hiking route in the city of Pokhara (Nepal). The two tourists had been missing since last Sunday morning.
Both had checked in at the Annapurna Conservation Area checkpoint on Sunday at 10:51 a.m. local time (0506 GMT) and their bags were found on Tuesday about a three-hour walk from the checkpoint.
Police are beginning preparations to send the body to Pokhara, Nepal’s second-most populous city with more than half a million people and a regular gateway for expeditions to the Himalayas, the spokesman said.
Photographs shared with EFE by the spokesperson show rescue teams working on search operations, which are focused on a mountainous area with abundant vegetation through which a fast-flowing river flows.
Local authorities suspect that the tourists may have fallen into the river after slipping while taking a photo next to a waterfall. “The situation at the scene shows that they left the bags near the waterfall and then went to take photos of the waterfall. The area is slippery,” the police spokesperson said.
Following the complaint of the Catalan family, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the embassy in New Delhi (India), stated that it was working on the case, and official sources of the department explained that they had contacted the families of the missing persons yesterday. Furthermore, the embassy “remains in permanent contact with the Nepalese authorities, who have resumed the search with in-depth measures since this morning”, according to these sources.
