Nepal has begun burying victims of last week's catastrophic flash floods in the mountainous nation in mass graves after collecting DNA samples.
Officials said on Tuesday that 1,003 bodies had been recovered, while 3,916 people were still listed as missing, following the surge of icy water, rocks, and mud that cascaded into the Himalayan valleys on August 26.
The deadly torrent was triggered by the collapse of a high-altitude glacier, which then wreaked havoc along a route traversing the country.
At a collective burial site in Chitwan district, Hindu rites of death, cremation, prayer, and final farewells were overwhelmed by the disaster's scale, as authorities interred unidentified bodies after DNA sampling because too many corpses could not be stored or individually identified.
Police using drones to search for survivors said on Tuesday that they had found 24 bodies in a house in Nuwakot district. At least 17 bodies were recovered from rivers further downstream in India.
Prime Minister Balendra Shah described the catastrophe as "unimaginable and heartbreaking."
