Hero instructor saves 1,600 kids in Nepal floods as faculty swept away by landslide
Quick-thinking Rajendra Dawadi leapt into action after receiving a phone call from his friend on Wednesday morning telling him the village five miles upstream had been taken by the river
Rajendra Dawadi saved the lives of more than 1,600 children in the floods
A hero teacher saved the lives of more than 1,600 children in the horror Nepal floods after their school was swept away by a landslide.
Quick-thinking Rajendra Dawadi leapt into action after receiving a phone call from his friend on Wednesday morning telling him the village five miles upstream had been taken by the river.
He was then warned by a parent that the water was rising fast towards Tribhuvan Trishuli secondary school in the Trishuli valley of north-central Nepal, which stood 200ft above the river.
As the minutes ticked away 900 pupils had already arrived at the school, while 700 more were on their way on foot and by bus.
It came amid devastating landslides and flash floods that left 752 people dead and 2,502 missing with a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy among 33 British nationals believed to be unaccounted for.
The school was swept away(Image: FACEBOOK)
Knowing his school was in trouble, Mr Dawadi, 47, quickly began calling the drivers of the buses on their way – managing to get through to all but one – and ordered them to turn back.
The water had already started entering the school grounds when he spotted the last bus, which he told to turn around.
He said: “It got to the other side just as the bridge collapsed.
“One girl had a panic attack, so we put her on the back of a motorbike.
“The rest I sent uphill on foot, then followed.”
More than 750 people died in the flash flood(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Dawadi’s rapid response saved 1,643 children and all but one member of staff, with the survivors taking shelter under a bodhi tree on higher ground.
Social history teacher Santos Pariyar, 32, who was new at the school, had come in early that day to teach extra classes and was washed away by the floods.
Meanwhile, hundreds of bodies of victims are said to be “no longer” identifiable. More than 3,700 people have been rescued so far.
Over the weekend the Nepali army inserted a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where more than 100 workers are understood to be trapped.
The home minister, Sudan Gurung, said: “We have already started sending air through the small opening and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside.”
