Brit says authorities mistakenly announced he had been 'found alive' in deadly Nepal floods

An aid worker from Britain has revealed that Nepal mistook him for a survivor of the devastating floods.

According to the country's disaster agency, the death toll from floods on the border with Tibet has crossed 1,000, with more than 3,900 still missing.

On Tuesday (1 September), Nepali officials said a British man was among the 119 people that had been rescued from the Rasuwa region of the country.

But Alastair Chambers, a former Gloucester councillor, had instead travelled to the area to help with relief efforts and had not been saved as part of the rescue mission.

“I got in the helicopter, the humanitarian aid helicopter, and I got dropped off at the army barracks, and when I got dropped off one of the police officers came up to me and asked for my details,” the 45-year-old told PA.

Nepal Police said on Wednesday the confirmed death toll had reached 1,127 (PA)

“Then they presumed that I’d been rescued. It’s been a bit of a weird one, really.

“I gave them my details, just abiding by the rules, and they obviously thought that I’d been rescued.

“News spreads – I was contacted by about 15 different journalists in the last few hours, just asking how I was and how I’m feeling after being rescued, and I had to say, ‘Well sorry, I haven’t been rescued'.

“I thought they seemed very happy when I arrived.”

Alastair Chambers (2nd right) in Nepal after the flash floods (PA)

Chambers flew to the South Asian country last week with other volunteers, distributing sleeping bags, water purification tools, food and essentials to communities cut off by collapsed bridges.

He is now hoping to fly back to the UK to raise money for the devastated village before returning with essentials and to set up solar powered lighting.

“It’s quite dangerous, and we’ve got a lot of landslides, trees across the roads in front of us,” he added.

The UK Government has promised £5 million of humanitarian support support for relief and recovery efforts (PA)

“To take a journey that should take about one and a half hours, took about eight or nine hours in the end.

“We made our way there and then had a flood scare first thing in the morning.

“We’d been told that the floods were coming again… so we made our way up the mountain.

“Thankfully, it wasn’t large as the other torrent of water, so we waited until that settled and then made our way down and helped locate bodies and deliver humanitarian aid for the last few days.

“It’s been quite challenging, but it’s been very rewarding as well.”

36 British people are still unaccounted for, up from the previous total of 33, Foreign Office minister Lord Wood of Anfield said.