KATHMANDU, Sept 2 — Nepal has begun collecting DNA samples from relatives of people missing after last week’s devastating floods, offering families a way to identify loved ones as authorities struggle with the sheer number of victims, The Guardian reported.

More than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead and nearly 4,000 remain missing, while hundreds of bodies have been buried as morgues run out of space, according to the UK newspaper reporting from onsite.

More than 100 relatives gathered at a Kathmandu hospital on Tuesday to provide blood samples, with authorities also asking families overseas to submit DNA profiles.

Among them was 19-year-old Prakrit Gurung, whose father has been identified but whose mother remains missing.

Gurung’s family recognised her father from a photograph displayed outside a hospital, and she is now hoping her DNA can help identify her mother, according to The Guardian.

Army official Rameshwor Adhikari said relatives were arriving from across the country to provide samples, with 37 people coming forward on the first day of the operation.

The floods have also left communities in northern Nepal cut off, with roads and bridges destroyed and some areas expected to remain inaccessible for weeks, The Guardian reported.

In upper Rasuwa district, 53-year-old Lhakpa Gha told The Guardian that seven members of her family were swept away from their village of Timure.

Her father, brother-in-law, son, daughter-in-law, four-year-old granddaughter, daughter and her sister’s brother are all missing.

“I lost my whole family,” Gha said through a translator. “We’ve lost everyone.”

About 200 survivors from the region are sheltering at a Buddhist monastery in Kathmandu, while Gha said the army had yet to reach Timure.

“The army has not been able to reach the village,” she told The Guardian.

“If it’s high risk, you need to act. But they have just said they can’t get in.”

Aid agencies have warned that the disaster has also left children vulnerable to malnutrition, disease and trafficking, with about 2,600 children expected to need treatment for severe wasting, according to The Guardian.