A mother in Nepal was reunited with her eight-year-old son on Friday after he survived two days stranded in a tree following a deadly glacier collapse that triggered catastrophic flooding, according to Reuters.
Zoyal Ghale was found alone and injured at a 15-bed hospital in Nuwakot on Thursday, two days after the lower section of the Langtang Lirung glacier collapsed, sending an avalanche of ice and rock cascading down the valley. The disaster killed at least 580 people across Nepal and China’s Tibet region, with more than 2,500 reported missing, according to local authorities.
Zoyal’s mother, Matti Maya Tamang, 28, had been searching for her two sons since the floods struck on Wednesday morning. She initially believed both children had been swept away by the torrent of water, mud and debris that engulfed villages near Katmandu. Tamang eventually located her younger son alive before learning Zoyal had been rescued and taken to Chakra Dev Hospital in Nuwakot.
The boy was found clinging to a tree after the floodwaters overwhelmed the area, forcing him and his brother to flee their school bus. With no clear landmarks remaining, Zoyal and a friend ran into the forest and climbed trees to escape the rising waters. He was rescued with a broken right leg and facial cuts, clutching two 10-rupee notes given to him by police to convince him to seek medical care.
The disaster affected more than 17,000 children across the Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts north of the capital, according to UNICEF. Tamang described the devastation as unimaginable, recalling how floodwaters, rocks and mud had obliterated roads, schools and markets. She had accepted the possibility that both sons were lost before receiving confirmation that Zoyal had been found.
Zoyal, described by his mother as a mischievous child, showed no fear during the ordeal, shaking his head when asked if he was scared. The family’s home is roughly a two-hour drive from the hospital in Katmandu where Zoyal was later transferred. His father, a construction worker in Japan, was en route to Nepal at the time of the disaster.
