Alastair Chambers, a former councillor, says he was mistaken for a survivor of the flash floods by Nepali officials.
A British aid worker said authorities in Nepal mistook him for a survivor of the devastating flash floods that hit the country last week and wrongly announced that he had been rescued.
Former Gloucester councillor Alastair Chambers, 45, told the Press Association the mix-up happened when he returned to the capital Kathmandu on a humanitarian aid flight after volunteering in a remote village.
Nepali officials had announced on Tuesday that a British man had been rescued from the Rasuwa region of the country.
In a statement on Facebook, the Nepali Army said 119 people, including a British citizen, had been rescued through the use of air resources.
A UK Rapid Deployment Team is now in Nepal to support British nationals and their families affected by the devastating flooding.
British nationals who need assistance should call:📞 Nepal: +977 (0) 1423 7100📞 China: +86 (0) 10 5192 4000📞 UK: +44 (0) 20 7008 5000 pic.twitter.com/8bHdxdeiLF
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) August 29, 2026
But Mr Chambers said he travelled to the area to help with relief efforts and had not been saved as part of the rescue mission.
After spending several days in a village near the Trishuli river in central Nepal, Mr Chambers flew back to the country’s capital in a humanitarian aid helicopter.
He told PA: “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.
“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,” he added.
Mr Chambers flew to Nepal last week after seeing the devastation wreaked by the floods on the news.
Together with other volunteers, he distributed sleeping bags, water purification tools, food and essentials to communities cut off by collapsed bridges, travelling to the area by helicopter.
Mr Chambers said: “It’s quite dangerous, and we’ve got a lot of landslides, trees across the roads in front of us.
“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.”
Mr Chambers plans to fly back to the UK to raise money for the devastated village before returning with essentials and to set up solar powered lighting.
On Tuesday, Foreign Office minister Lord Wood of Anfield told the House of Lords that 36 British people are currently unaccounted for, up from the previous total of 33.
Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Baroness Winterton, will visit Nepal’s capital Kathmandu from Wednesday to Thursday to discuss support for recovery efforts, the Foreign Office said.
During her visit, Baroness Winterton will meet Nepali and UN officials, as well as embassy staff and members of the UK’s rapid deployment team, which is supporting the families of British nationals.
Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty will meet members of the British-Nepali community in London on Wednesday, to discuss the support available for those affected.
The UK Government has promised £5 million of humanitarian support support for relief and recovery efforts.
