The 39 Australians missing in Nepal, and what we know about them

Warning: This story contains graphic content.Families across the country are reeling in the aftermath of the devastating flash flooding in Nepal and Tibet, as the number of Australians reported missing rises and loved ones at home hold out hope for any good news.Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Friday morning that at least 39 Australians are now reported missing – up from 35 overnight.At least 14 of those missing are believed to have travelled to Nepal from Sydney – including boys aged 11 and 14 on a pilgrimage with their family – while a son in Melbourne is anxiously awaiting any news of his father.Rudhra Iyer is also missing in Nepal after the devastating flash floods.West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket ClubFifteen of the missing Australians were travelling with the Himalayan Glacier Adventure and Travel Kailash Group, six others were travelling with the Kailash Journeys tour group, and 11 were on a pilgrimage with non-profit spiritual organisation the Isha Foundation. The whereabouts of one traveller with Kathmandu Holiday Tours and Travel, and six other Australian travellers remain unknown.A family from Cherrybrook, in Sydney’s northern suburbs, is among the missing.In a Facebook post, Nisha Khadka said family friends Sridharan Iyer and Lakshmi Iyer, as well as Rudhra and Rishab Iyer were missing in Nepal.Khadka said the group was last known to be in Kathmandu before the natural disaster and friends were urgently trying to locate them.“If anyone has seen them, has any information about their whereabouts, or has found them safe, please contact me as soon as possible,” she said.Rishab is a medicine student at the University of Newcastle, while his brother Rudhra is a student at Western Sydney University.Aarush and Ashwin Muralitharan and their parents were travelling with Himalayan Glacier and are currently missing.InternetAnother pair of brothers, Aarush and Ashwin Muralitharan, and their parents were travelling with Himalayan Glacier and are currently missing. At 11 and 14, the boys are among the youngest Australians affected by the flood.Also among the missing are Sydneysiders Venkatraman Balakrishnan and Chitra Venkatraman.Sydneysiders Venkatraman Balakrishnan and Chitra Venkatraman are among the missing.InternetMelbourne father Kumar Sampath, 61, is also among the missing pilgrims.“He’s a hardworking, successful entrepreneur who came to Australia with nothing and provided his family with everything they wanted,” Kumar’s son Mani told this masthead.“He loved hiking, nature and recently retired and wanted to explore his faith.”Sampath ran an engineering business specialising in railways before he retired. His son said his family hoped he would be found alive.Indian-Australian community leader Vasan Srinivasan said the other 14 missing Australians from the Himalayan Glacier pilgrimage were Sydney-based members of a cultural and religious non-profit he founded called the Australia Bharatha Brahman Samajam.“We are all very distressed and trying to track them. I’m just praying.”Kumar Sampath, from Melbourne’s east, is one of 39 Australians reported missing.Srinivasan has held several senior community roles, including president of the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria and vice president of the Hindu Society of Victoria.He said those missing worked in various professions, including the financial industry, and many were his close professional friends. Meanwhile, the Isha Foundation said 11 Australians were missing after a building they were believed to be in was engulfed and destroyed by floodwaters.The last known signal from the group, which had completed its pilgrimage, was after members entered an immigration building on the border, said the Isha Foundation’s founder Jagadish Vasudev, who is known as Sadhguru.“They believe the entire group was in the building,” Vasudev said. “The town where they were entering, almost half the town is carved out of the valley.“At 9.05 we received a message from group leader Praveen. He sent a message saying they had arrived at immigration. This event happened at 9.14am.“His [Praveen’s] Nepal phone did not become active. If he had crossed, his Nepal phone should have become active but he did not come.”Brisbane father Narayan Panthi was on a sacred pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, embracing the mantra of “living in the present”.Posting about his nine-day journey on social media, he wrote: “May this sacred journey to Kailash bring peace to my mind, joy to my soul, and new energy to my life.”Krishna Prasad Dhakal, the operator of Kathmandu Holiday Tour and Travels, said a group of 17 people, including foreign nationals, who had set out on a bus journey to Mansarovar, were missing, and it hadn’t been possible to establish contact with any of them.He said Panthi was part of the travelling group. “It has not been possible to contact him or anyone else yet,” Dhakal said. “I just spoke with family members; they are coming to meet me.”On Thursday night, families gathered for prayers and held a minute’s silence for those lost to the floods, laying candles beside a hand-crafted display of dyed rice reading “pray for Nepal”.Keshav Kadel was among members of Nepalese community who gathered at the Australian Nepalese Multicultural Centre, which he serves as vice president.“What’s happening in my town is that bodies are now flowing in the river,” he said. “They have slid all the way down and people are pulling bodies from the river.”The diaspora was “united in grief, hope and prayer”, centre secretary Sudhir Shakya told the event, north-west of Melbourne.“Behind every number is a person – a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a relative, a friend, and someone deeply loved,” he said.Mourners compared the floods to the 2015 earthquake which devastated Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, killing almost 9000 people. While the death count this time is not as great, Kadel warned that consequences would be more dire at the level of individual towns.He has followed the disaster largely through social media, unable to bring himself to call those in the affected region. “I didn’t have the courage to do that,” he said.Similar events were held across Australia on Thursday, including a candle vigil in Rockdale, in Sydney’s south.Australians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135, or +61 2 6261 3305 (if calling from overseas).With Josefine Ganko, Eryk Bagshaw, AAPRead more on the Nepal flood disaster:From our partners