33 Britons still reported missing as Nepal shifts flood response

• Nepal’s disaster council suspended the general search-and-rescue phase on 5 October and ordered agencies to speed up reconstruction and rehabilitation.¹
• The Independent reported on 6 October that 33 Britons remained missing in Nepal.²
• On 1 September, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament that 36 British nationals were unaccounted for.³
• Nepal’s decision still allows essential or urgent searches, and emergency rescues if needed.¹⁴

The change marks a shift in Nepal’s response, not a complete end to search activity. The council, chaired by Prime Minister Balendra Shah, directed agencies to concentrate on rebuilding and recovery while continuing necessary searches.¹

Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Centre chief, Phanindra Paudel, told Reuters that authorities were moving from search and rescue to “search and rehabilitation”. Dharam Raj Uprety, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, said teams would recover remains found during rehabilitation work and carry out emergency rescues if needed.⁴

The Independent’s 33-person figure is the latest specific count of missing Britons found in public reporting. It does not match the earlier figure given by Miliband in the Commons on 1 September: 36 British nationals among 3,916 people then missing. The two figures are reports from different dates; neither establishes the current total.²³

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a written parliamentary answer on 9 September that it had shared information about missing people with Nepalese and Chinese authorities and deployed Police Family Liaison Officers to support individual families. The answer gave no updated British count or case-by-case account of what families had been told.⁵

Across Nepal, Reuters reported on 5 October that 5,285 people remained missing, 1,455 had died and 13,795 had been rescued. Authorities said they were considering legal processes for missing people so relatives could handle insurance, banking and other formalities.⁴

Footnotes

1. The Kathmandu Post, “Nepal scales back flood search as Rs559b reconstruction effort begins”. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. The Independent, “Nepal formally ends search after flash floods disaster with dozens of Britons still missing”. ↩ ↩²

3. House of Commons, Hansard, 1 September 2026. ↩ ↩²

4. Reuters, “Nepal ends search and rescue after flood, focuses on rehabilitation”, republished by MarketScreener. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. UK Parliament, written answer on support for UK nationals missing in Nepal, 9 September 2026. ↩