Kathmandu, Aug. 8 -- Nepal has begun diplomatic efforts to trace and rescue citizens reportedly missing after flash floods and landslides triggered by a cloudburst in India's Uttarakhand state earlier this week, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba said on Thursday.

Deuba said she had instructed Nepal's embassy in New Delhi to coordinate urgently with Indian authorities.

"The news of Nepali citizens going missing in the floods in India is very saddening," she wrote on social media, adding that the government had already begun diplomatic action.

District officials in Dhading said four residents of ward 2 of Jwalamukhi Municipality-Singh Bahadur Tamang, Lal Bahadur Tamang, Chholama Tamang and Phelama Tamang-have been out of contact since tra...