Joanna Lumley joins vigil for Nepal flood victims and says catastrophe could have been predicted

Joanna Lumley joins vigil for Nepal flood victims and says catastrophe could have been predicted A candlelit vigil for the devastating flash floods in Nepal was joined by iconic actress Dame Joanna Lumley, who said the disaster 'broke her heart' Dame Joanna Lumley joined a vigil for the deadly flash floods in Nepal and said the "heartbreaking" disaster "could have maybe been predicted". The actress, 80, has visited Nepal on numerous occasions and has strong ties with the community due to her late father being an officer in the Gurkha regiment. Dame Joanna joined members of London's Nepalese community as around 50 people gathered for a candlelit vigil at Panas Gurkha Restaurant in Blackheath, south-east London, on Thursday afternoon. She said seeing the flash floods sweep through the northern part of the country "broke her heart". Since the floods on August 26, 1,252 people have died and around 4,200 remain missing, including 590 foreign nationals from 34 countries. 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. At the vigil, Dame Joanna said: "I think, actually, in this country and around the world our hearts have been absolutely broken by what happened in Nepal. The sense that it could have maybe been predicted by all the people who understood that by human activities somehow the world seems to be changing, seems to be getting warmer. "These catastrophes, the great Himalayan glaciers melting, isn't something that we haven’t heard of and thought of before. When you see the catastrophic outcome, I think we feel completely hopeless every day we look in the papers." The actress also said having visited Nepal, "it breaks my heart because I know how difficult it is to get around". Dame Joanna is the patron of healthcare charity Doctors for Nepal and vice patron of The Gurkha Welfare Trust, which provides aid to Gurkha veterans who served in the British Army. Her father served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, during the Second World War. The actress emphasised the impact climate change has had on the world. The floods are believed to have been caused by a glacial collapse in the Himalayas which sent rock, ice and meltwater into valleys below, triggering powerful floods. Dame Joanna said: "It seems that we have been warned about this over the years. Now, there are two camps, as we both know: there is the people who believe that climate change is largely affected by mankind and those who just say that it's completely a natural phenomenon. "I belong to the first camp, which is that I do believe that what we do here, and the fossil fuels we burn and the plastic waste in the sea and so on, I do believe that is making the world a sicker place and a weaker place. And the places which are melting fastest are the high mountains and places, and so the Himalayas are there." Also present at the vigil on Thursday were Vice Lord-Lieutenant Colonel Jane Davis, former Coronation Street star Sally Lindsay, drummer Steve White and Greenwich mayor David Wardrop. Panas Gurkha Restaurant, where the vigil took place, has been raising money to help with the rescue efforts in Nepal.