Nepal is grappling with a mounting catastrophe after flash floods and debris flows tore through communities near the Chinese border, pushing the death toll beyond 900 as rescuers worked through the night to reach people feared trapped in blocked hydropower tunnels.
At least 939 people have been killed in Nepal, the country’s disaster authority said, adding that the number of missing had fallen to 3,925 six days after the disaster.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 dead and 546 people missing in Tibet, bringing the combined toll across the border region to 955 dead and 4,471 missing.
The disaster — an extraordinary surge of ice, rock, mud and debris along the Nepal-Tibet border — struck last Wednesday and has been blamed on a glacier collapse.
In Nepal’s plains, hundreds of bodies, many still unidentified, have been laid to rest in shallow graves as humid conditions accelerated decomposition after victims were swept down from the mountains by the torrent.
Officials said Nepal’s missing list includes 592 foreign nationals.
In its latest update, the disaster agency put the number of missing Nepali citizens at 3,333.
Watch: RTÉ’s Kate Varley reports from Kathmandu, Nepal
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The missing are concentrated in hard-hit areas including Nuwakot district, where 1,158 people remain unaccounted for, and Rasuwa district, which has reported a further 865 missing.
Among those still missing are 45 Nepali army soldiers, 38 police officers and 18 customs and immigration officers.
Across the border in India, authorities in Uttar Pradesh state said they had recovered 17 bodies from rivers flowing down from Nepal, and believe they are flood victims.
Those bodies are being identified by Indian authorities and are not included in the official toll.
Nepali officials said efforts were now heavily focused on reaching hundreds of workers believed to be trapped inside roughly half a dozen hydropower project tunnels, which were sealed by mud and rock debris.
The number of hydropower workers listed as missing — projects that took the brunt of the torrent — fell to 639 from an earlier count of 933.
Images and videos circulated by rescue teams showed earth-moving machinery digging and clearing mud and rock under floodlights in the darkness, while workers looked on.
Soldiers, using torchlight, searched a large pit they had excavated in hopes of finding an opening into one tunnel.
The Red Cross has estimated that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the disaster, which China has linked to the effects of climate change.
Police personnel work at a mass burial of flood victims at Devghat in Nepal
Assessment of damage challenging, says Nepali prime minster
“A large amount of debris has been deposited and that is posing us a big challenge to open the tunnels,” Nepal army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told Reuters. “Our main focus is on opening the tunnels.”
Prime Minister Balendra Shah described the flood as an “unprecedented and devastating natural disaster” and said compiling a complete picture of the damage remained difficult.
“Despite the adverse weather, difficult terrain and continuing risks, we are moving forward with determination to save the lives of our citizens,” he said in a Facebook post late yesterday.
A drone provides supplies along the Trishuli River, in Devighat, Nuwakot, Nepal
He said nearly 21,000 security personnel were engaged in rescue operations, alongside civilian workers and volunteers.
On the Chinese side, authorities said 16 people were killed in Gyirong County and 546 were missing.
Beijing has said 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries were unaccounted for in Tibet, near a key border crossing with Nepal.
Families and relatives check the name images of those missing in Kathmandu
China’s state-run CCTV reported that Beijing has deployed more than 2,100 rescue workers and set aside at least 220 million yuan (€28m) for relief efforts. It said equipment and supplies have been dropped by air to frontline teams, while soldiers used life-detection equipment to search for the missing.
Survivors look to salvage belongings
Nepal has said it does not require foreign assistance for general search and rescue, but has turned to regional powers India and China for specialised expertise in tunnel rescue operations.
Rescuers in Nepal use a digger to find those missing
Since Friday, rescue work has been halted several times because of poor weather and fears that a lake created by the disaster across the Nepal-China border could unleash another wave of flooding after it began spilling into Nepal’s rivers.
Conditions improved this morning and rescue teams accelerated their efforts, said Narendra Pariyar, the district administrator of Rasuwa, one of the two worst-affected districts.
In Devighat, a holy town on the banks of the flooded Trishuli river, residents moved through the remains of homes, trying to retrieve possessions from the wreckage.
Overnight rain and rising river waters hampered rescue operations
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the flood was “caused by glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming”, calling it a “new and prominent feature of cryosphere disasters” on the Tibetan plateau.
Two Nepali officials told Reuters that China had provided little information on glacier risks and water levels after a meeting earlier this year aimed at strengthening cooperation, and warned that limited data-sharing could undermine future disaster preparedness.
Read more: Hope and horror: Families in Nepal await news of missing
‘Everything is lost’ – Inside Nepal’s devastated flood zone
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How a glacier collapse may have caused Nepal-Tibet floods
China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the meeting.
CCTV, citing Chinese scientists, said the mudslide from the Nepali side took six to seven minutes to reach the Gyirong border crossing.
Surveillance video that spread widely online captured walls of water and debris swallowing buildings as people tried to escape.
People mourn relatives outside a mortuary in Nepal’s Chitwan district
