Search and rescue operations backed by helicopters and drones continued on Thursday as the death toll from devastating flash floods along the Nepal-China border rose to 168, while over 1,300 people remained missing.
Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) confirmed 165 deaths and said 826 people remained missing, including tourists, foreign nationals, civilian officials, soldiers, police and local residents. A further 558 people are reported missing in China.
The floods were likely triggered by a large chunk of ice breaking off a Himalayan glacier some 20 kilometres northeast of the Rasuwa-Rasuwagadhi border crossing, according to satellite imagery, sending tonnes of ice and rock tumbling into the Bhotekoshi River below, the Himalayan Times reported.
The government said it is relocating displaced residents and mobilising the army and private helicopter operators for search and rescue operations.
The Nepali Army and private helicopter operators have airlifted 114 people to safety.
Chitwan district in Bagmati province accounted for the highest number of casualties, with 64 deaths, followed by the adjoining districts of Dhading, with 27, and Nawalparasi East, with 22. Nepal Police said 28 officers were also still missing.
According to initial reports, the floods have destroyed 19 bridges and a 40-kilometre portion of a key highway, severing transportation routes and complicating rescue efforts.
Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said the floods have caused "extreme damage" in several districts, cautioning that only preliminary information was available so far.
He called for heightened alertness along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli riverbanks in Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha and Chitwan districts, where risk remains high.
The government declared Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading "disaster crisis areas" for three months.
The NDRRMA has asked helicopter and drone operators to coordinate search and rescue efforts with district administrations, security agencies and local governments and is advising stranded residents to light fires and produce smoke to signal their location.
India, China and the World Bank have moved swiftly to coordinate financial assistance for the rescue, relief and reconstruction of flood-affected areas in Nepal, according to Nepal’s Ministry of Finance.
Three dead, 558 missing in Tibet
At least three people were killed and 558 remained missing in China’s Gyirong County following the mudslide disaster, Chinese state media reported.
The mudslide struck Gyirong Port in southwestern Xizang Autonomous Region, commonly known as Tibet, Beijing-based Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.
A directing group from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was dispatched to the affected region on Thursday to coordinate joint rescue operations by military personnel.
The Gyirong border crossing is the main crossing point for tourists and traffic between China and Nepal.
State Grid Xizang Electric Power Company Limited was assembling emergency power supplies in Gyirong town, according to the report.
China’s Ministry of Emergency Management and National Fire and Rescue Administration dispatched more than 100 firefighters and rescue personnel to the disaster-hit area.
The first chartered plane carrying a rescue team arrived at an airport in Xigaze city early on Thursday.
Missing tourists, foreigners
Separately, Khanal told Indian broadcaster NDTV that “close to 300 Indians have been reported missing and the government is trying to establish contact with them.”
He also said foreign nationals, including Indians, take the route in the affected area for the Mansarovar Yatra, a sacred pilgrimage for Hindus.
As many as 476 foreigners from 29 countries are among the over 550 tourists missing in Nepal, tourism officials said on Thursday. The tally of foreigners missing in Tibet's Gyirong county was 260, state broadcaster CCTV said, but nationality details were not immediately available.
India’s External Affairs Minister said on Thursday morning that New Delhi has sent a second plane carrying 37.5 tonnes of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief material, medicines and food packets for Nepal.
A total of 34 Australians were reported missing and authorities were working with Nepal to locate them, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.
At least 63 US citizens are missing, the Nepal tourism board said, while there were 33 British citizens missing since the disaster, the Associated Press reported, citing a Nepal tourism board spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Nepal's embassy in Canada confirmed 25 Canadians were missing,
Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said 55 Malaysians in Kathmandu are now unreachable, with severe disruptions to infrastructure hampering efforts to contact them.
New Zealand’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that five of the country’s nationals were believed to be in the area and their whereabouts were unclear.
At least eight Germans, five Russians, 53 Ukranians, six South Africans and six Singapore citizens were among the missing, the board said.
Nine South Koreans working in a hydropower plant were also missing and 10 more were stranded, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said late on Wednesday.
Japan's embassy in Nepal was unable to establish contact with five of its citizens and had requested that a search be conducted to locate them, Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in a post on X.
Also missing since Wednesday are citizens of Belarus, Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Kazhakstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the Phillipines, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, Nepal's tourism board said in its statement.
