Nepal headmaster evacuates 1,600+ students after upstream flood warnings

Rajendra Dawadi rang the school bell to warn his fellow teachers they needed to evacuate (Picture: Rajendra Dawadi) The head teacher of a school in Nepal almost certainly saved the lives of more than 1,600 pupils with his quick actions as this week’s devastating flash floods approached. Rajendra Dawadi, the principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, was working on Wednesday morning when he started to receive warnings from people upstream. At the time, there were around 900 students on the early shift at the school – with 700 making their way towards the building on foot or by bus. Speaking to the Times, Rajendra said one of the calls came from a parent who said the water ‘was rising fast’. Unsure if the floodwater would come in the school’s direction, he nevertheless made the call to ring the school bell and get the children out of their classrooms and to higher ground. He told the BBC: ‘I decided I shouldn’t delay any more. Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day’s classes.’ Sign up for all of the latest stories Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens. Rajendra, 47, added: ‘If we had made the decision ten minutes later, all of us, including the students and me, would not be able to speak to you today.’ The students were motivated up the hill by the sheer terror of seeing the school janitor being swept away after he returned to lock some doors, he said. A hostel building 100 metres from the river’s banks was also swallowed up as they made their way to safety. Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School, which was destroyed in the flood (Picture: Rajendra Dawadi) But while the children who were in the school were safe, he also knew the ones who were on their way in also needed to be warned. Rajendra was able to get through to the drivers of all the school buses – which each carried 80 passengers – except one, which he later saw making its way across the bridge towards the school. He told the Times: ‘By now, the water was in the school grounds — it was so fast — so I told him to turn around. It got to the other side just as the bridge collapsed.’ Yunisha, a 16-year-old student at the secondary school, said in a BBC interview: ‘I, along with my friends, survived by just 10 seconds.’ To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page Meanwhile, a 97-year-old woman has been rescued from the rubble of her care home after it was destroyed in the flood. Guna Maya Bohara’s great-nephew, Dipak Bohara, said she ‘smiled as if she was a warrior that had returned after being victorious in a war’ as she was carried away from the scene in the bucket of an excavator. More than 30 British nationals are still missing after extensive flash flooding hit the Himalayan country. In its latest update, the Nepalese police said 794 people had been killed in the disaster while a total of 2,502 remain missing. The flood is thought to have been caused when a huge chunk of ice and rock collapsed from a glacier, an event that registered a magnitude of 5.2 on its own according to the US Geological Survey. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page. Comment now Comments Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source

The school bell that morning was not a call to class. It was a warning to run. Within minutes, 1,643 children at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Nuwakot district were being moved towards higher ground as a devastating flash flood tore through the valley.By the time the waters surged through the area, the three-storey school building was gone.At the centre of the dramatic evacuation was principal Rajendra Dawadi, a 47-year-old English teacher who had only minutes to decide whether the school was safe.'He told me to run'Dawadi initially believed the school was protected. The concrete building stood around 60 metres above the river and was roughly level with a steel bridge connecting the village to the eastern bank.Then, at around 9.20 am on Wednesday, a friend called with a terrifying warning.His friend from upstream who called him to warn him about the flash floods and his quick thinking and decisive leadership saved the lives of everyone. He basically saved a generation of Nepalese pic.twitter.com/hhVrl3Si3K— Meidas_Charise Lee (@charise_lee) August 29, 2026 “He said the village was gone: taken by the river. He told me to run,” Dawadi said, according to The Times, which reported his account.Soon after, a parent arrived at the school and warned that the water was rising rapidly. Dawadi immediately rang the bell and instructed teachers to evacuate the classrooms. He also contacted the school bus drivers and told them to turn back.One bus, however, had already begun crossing the bridge.The children were now aware that something was seriously wrong. One girl suffered a panic attack and was taken uphill on a motorcycle. Others ran on foot, with Dawadi following behind to ensure they reached safer ground.‼️#INCREIBLE Gracias al liderazgo clave del director Rajendra Dawadi la vida de 1643 estudiantes de la Secundaria Tribhuvan Trishuli se salvaron de la tragedia de ayer en Nepal.#China #Tibet pic.twitter.com/6myU7vSdqm— Cristian Crespo F. (@cristiancrespoj) August 27, 2026 The children eventually took shelter beneath a bodhi tree. Then the floodwaters arrived.School destroyed, two staff killedThe force of the flood swept away buildings, bridges and huge quantities of rock, mud and debris. The school was among the structures destroyed.The evacuation saved all 1,643 children, but two school staff members died.Social history teacher Santos Pariyar, 32, returned to his rented room near the river to prepare breakfast and was swept away. Janitor Sultan Lama also died after going back to close the school's doors.Several students and staff who fled towards the hills were later stranded after roads and bridges were destroyed. Despite being praised by locals as a hero, Dawadi has remained remarkably understated about his actions.“What else could I do?” he said while surveying the muddy ruins of the school.Headmaster Mr. Rajendra Dadabi! We Salute you! His friend from upstream who called him to warn him about the flash floods and his quick thinking and decisive leadership saved the lives of everyone. He basically saved a generation of Nepalese kids! A Hero in these trying times.… pic.twitter.com/QNngrrtwUT— MajorSammerToor (@MajorSammerToor) August 30, 2026 How the Nepal flash flood was triggeredThe disaster was linked to a massive collapse of ice and rock from the Langtang Lirung area near the Tibet border. The debris plunged into the Lhende Khola river, triggering a sudden torrent of water, mud, rocks and ice downstream.Geomorphologist Daniel Shugar of the University of Calgary estimated the collapsed mass covered nearly 50 acres, roughly the size of London’s Green Park.Nepal’s latest figures put the death toll at 734, with 2,498 people still missing. In Tibet, 16 people have died and 546 remain missing. For the children of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School, the river destroyed almost everything around them.But thanks to one warning — and a principal who acted on it — the children escaped before the flood arrived.