Australia sends drone specialists to join Nepal search as 36 citizens missing

Australian disaster response specialists left for Nepal on Friday to join the search for survivors after the catastrophic Himalayan floods, as the government expressed "serious concerns" for the welfare of its 36 missing citizens.



More than 1,200 people have been confirmed dead and some 5,000 remain missing after a glacier collapse triggered the floods on August 26. The Nepal government says 583 foreign nationals are among the missing.



A 15-member Australian Disaster Assistance Response Team, made up predominantly of drone pilots from state emergency services, was deployed following a request from Nepal's government, authorities said.



"We are still holding out hope that people might still be surviving in sort of some locations and hopefully this team can help to locate any of those people," Jeremy Fewtrell, the commissioner of Fire and Rescue New South Wales, told reporters at Sydney Airport on Friday.



"Predominately the team is made up of pilots for our specialist drones," he said, adding that they were equipped with different drones able to survey large areas from the air and navigate confined spaces that may be inaccessible to rescuers.