A school principal in Nepal saved more than 1,600 children after a landslide-triggered flash flood destroyed his school, which had stood 200ft above the Trishuli River. Rajendra Dawadi, 47, principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli secondary school, acted after being warned the river was rising fast, phoning bus drivers to turn back and leading pupils uphill to safety before the building was swept away. His quick thinking is credited with saving 1,643 children and all but one staff member, a colleague who had come in early and was caught by the floodwaters.

The disaster struck on Wednesday when an estimated 50-acre mass of ice and rock broke off Langtang Lirung peak and plunged 1,200 metres into a river gorge near the Nepal-Tibet border, triggering catastrophic flooding. The combined death toll in Nepal and Tibet has since risen to around 750, with more than 3,000 people still missing, and authorities have warned of further flooding as water levels rise in the Bhotekoshi River. Rescue crews are working to clear a key highway to Kathmandu, while residents in affected areas describe repeated evacuation alerts, day and night, amid ongoing rain.