Nepal head teacher's quick call saved 900 pupils minutes before flood

A head teacher in Nepal is being credited with averting disaster after ordering an immediate evacuation of around 900 pupils just minutes before flooding devastated the area around the school and swept away the local Trishuli Bazar market.

Sixteen-year-old pupil Yunisha Amatya said she and her friends escaped with only about ten seconds to spare. At the time, students were in class and teachers themselves were initially unaware of what was happening; it took roughly five minutes before staff alerted pupils and told them to head home. Some students underestimated the danger and waited for classmates still in a maths lesson, while one pupil fainted upon hearing the news.

Amatya and her friends fled uphill via a steep escape route behind the school, at one point climbing down a narrow ladder. She said that without proper grip on her shoes she might have fallen amid the crowd jostling to reach safety, and that people who chose an alternative escape route were reportedly swept away by the flood.

Students and teachers first moved a few hundred metres uphill before continuing to a neighbouring village. With roads destroyed and transport disrupted, many were stranded for two nights before rescuers reached them. Both the head teacher and Amatya, who live across the river from the school, were later airlifted to their home village.

Meanwhile, Amatya's parents struggled for hours to reach her by phone. Her father rushed toward the school, saw the flooded market and feared the worst, before finally getting through to his daughter after nearly an hour. The family was reunited three days later.

Head teacher Dawadi said better early-warning systems, such as sirens and evacuation alerts, could have helped residents respond faster, but stressed that his decision to act immediately, rather than waiting until the end of the class period, prevented what could have been a far greater catastrophe.