According to The Kathmandu Post, the official added that the government’s decision is based on its experience in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, when an influx of foreign search and rescue teams had caused significant coordination and management issues.
It added that the decision was made on the recommendation of the Nepali Army and police.
Meanwhile, Nepal’s foreign affairs ministry has set up an emergency response team (ERT) to assist foreigners affected by the floods, which occurred in the Rasuwa district.
“The ERT shall serve as the central coordinating body within the Ministry to facilitate search, rescue, information verification and consular assistance in respect of foreign nationals affected by, missing in, or otherwise connected to the flood incident,” read a statement on the ministry’s website.
The death toll in Nepal reached 469 on Friday, with almost 1,000 more missing there and in neighbouring Tibet, near where a glacier collapse on Wednesday morning sent a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris cascading through Himalayan mountain river systems.
The flood ripped through villages and valleys, destroying power stations, roads and bridges along a route that links Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet and is popular with trekkers and pilgrims. Of those missing, at least 540 are foreigners.
The foreigners out of contact include citizens from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and South Korea, Nepal’s tourism board said.
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