Nepal-China floods push missing toll past 2,400 as search continues

A massive surge of water, mud and debris swept through parts of the Himalayan region, destroying settlements and trapping thousands of people.

The disaster has affected Nepal and Tibet, with authorities reporting hundreds of deaths and thousands of people still unaccounted for.

Emergency teams are working in difficult conditions to find survivors and recover bodies. Many affected communities have also been left without enough food and drinking water.

The disaster authority in Nepal added 933 hydropower workers to its missing persons list. The list also includes trekkers, residents and pilgrims travelling towards Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash.

Survivors have described scenes of widespread destruction. “All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” survivor Buddhi Ram Dangol told AFP.

Samjhana Thing, whose brother has been missing for three days, said her family still had no information about him.

“We don’t know anything. Hopefully he is in a safe place,” she said.

Thousands remain missing after devastating floods

The Red Cross said the disaster had caused “enormous” trauma and may have affected as many as 93,000 people.

The death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers reach more remote areas. Teams are facing serious difficulties because roads, bridges and other routes have been damaged by floods and landslides.

Food and water supplies are also becoming a major concern in areas cut off by the disaster. Authorities are trying to reach communities where residents have been waiting for assistance.

The situation has become even more dangerous because of the possibility of additional flooding. Large amounts of ice, mud and water have formed temporary lakes in some locations.

Nepali police warned rescuers to “immediately move to a safe location” after receiving information that “a water dam has burst again on the Tibetan side”.

The warning forced emergency teams to remain cautious while continuing their search for missing people.

Rescue operations face dangerous conditions

In Tibet, Chinese authorities temporarily suspended rescue operations in the worst-hit area of Gyirong because of concerns about renewed flooding.

The situation later appeared to improve, and Chinese state media reported that two villagers had been rescued from the area.

On the Nepal side, the military has been searching for workers trapped inside a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project.

Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said two helicopters had been sent to support the operation. However, locating the tunnel entrances has been difficult because the surrounding area has been heavily damaged.

About 350 workers and residents were brought to safety from the site, while efforts continued to rescue more than 100 people believed to be trapped in the same area.

The hydropower sector has been particularly affected because several projects are located along the Trishuli valley. The disaster has placed both workers and infrastructure at serious risk.

Survivors describe sudden destruction

Workers rescued from other hydropower projects said the floods arrived with frightening speed.

Buddha Tamang said he survived because he was inside a tunnel when the flood struck the dam where he worked.

“The senior officers working on the other side, they were all swept away,” Tamang said after being rescued by helicopter.

He had reportedly remained stranded for more than 24 hours before being evacuated.

Nepal reported 616 deaths, while earlier figures from emergency authorities indicated that 1,924 people, including 517 foreigners, remained out of contact.

The figures may change as rescue teams reach isolated areas and authorities receive new information about missing people.

Bodies recovered downstream in India

The impact of the floods has also reached India, where authorities recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal.

Officials believe the bodies could belong to people who were swept away by the floods in Nepal.

The development shows how far the powerful floodwaters travelled through rivers and valleys. Search teams in affected areas are therefore facing a difficult task because victims may have been carried far from where they were last seen.

Across the border in Tibet, Chinese state media reported seven deaths and 554 missing people.

Chinese authorities also said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents from affected parts of the region.

The different figures reported by authorities are expected to change as search and rescue operations continue.

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Pilgrims among those still missing

The disaster has also affected people travelling towards Mount Kailash, an important Hindu pilgrimage destination in Tibet.

Many Hindu devotees from different countries were reportedly travelling through the region when the floods struck.

Sivaranjani Muthunathan was travelling on a bus with 56 other people towards the Chinese border. She said the group initially believed they were stuck in normal traffic.

“Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us,” Muthunathan said while describing the moment the flood arrived.

Vehicles around the group were swept away or buried under mud. The passengers eventually escaped through the driver’s side and climbed towards higher ground.

Her account highlights how quickly conditions changed and how little time people had to react.

Search continues as fears grow

Rescue workers are continuing operations across affected parts of Nepal and Tibet. Their main priorities are finding survivors, recovering bodies and reaching communities cut off by the floods.

Authorities are also monitoring water levels and temporary lakes because another surge could put rescuers and survivors at risk.

The disaster has caused major damage in areas already difficult to access because of mountainous terrain. This is making helicopter operations and ground rescue efforts more challenging.

Families of missing people remain uncertain about the fate of their loved ones. For many survivors, the immediate challenge is not only finding missing relatives but also finding shelter, food and clean water.