At least 469 people have died and more than 1,500 remain missing across Nepal and China's Tibet region after a glacial collapse sent a mass of mud and rock into a Himalayan river, triggering catastrophic flooding through towns and valleys. Authorities in Kathmandu confirmed the toll on Friday.
The disaster struck the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border region. Some of the worst damage was recorded in Nepal's Rasuwa district, immediately south of the Chinese border.
Television footage showed collapsed homes, floating vehicles and a metal bridge being swept away. Witnesses said the floodwaters engulfed entire villages.
Officials initially believed a magnitude 4.4 earthquake may have triggered the flooding on Wednesday morning. However, experts and the United States Geological Survey confirmed that the seismic event was itself a consequence of a glacial collapse and debris flow, not the other way around.
Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said the flood occurred in the Lhende Khola river following an ice-rock avalanche on the Nepali side, according to geologist Prakash Pokhrel. The initial surge entered the Lhende Khola, which feeds into the Bhotekoshi and then the Trishuli rivers, carrying floodwaters south through Nepal. Water levels in the Trishuli reportedly rose by as much as 9 metres in just 30 minutes.
According to Nepalese police, the death toll stood at 469 as of Friday morning. At least three additional deaths were recorded in Tibet. Official nationality counts for the dead are still pending.
Local morgues have been running out of space to store bodies until they can be identified. Authorities have begun using buildings at health and science academies as temporary morgues. Officials are also working on a system to bury unidentified bodies by assigning each a tag number retaining burial information.
As of Friday morning, more than 1,500 people were missing across Nepal and Tibet. Nepal's Department of Tourism said on Thursday that 668 tourists from 34 countries had been out of contact since Wednesday morning, most of them on trekking expeditions.
Among the missing tourists, at least 177 are from India, 90 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from the United Kingdom and 25 from Canada. China's Foreign Ministry said 100 Chinese nationals were also among the missing in Nepal. In Tibet's Gyirong county, 558 people are reported missing, including 260 foreign nationals, according to Chinese state media.
Many of the Indian nationals, along with some travellers of Indian origin from the US and Europe, were on their way to Tibet for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, a Hindu pilgrimage to a peak and lake sacred to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.
Sneha Sudhir was one of ten women whose husbands had set out from Nepal on a trek to Tibet's Mount Kailash when the disaster struck. The men, all from northern Virginia, are among dozens of missing Americans. "Where are they?" Sudhir said tearfully from her home in Chantilly, Virginia, on Thursday.
Sudhir said the women were supporting each other and reaching out to officials, politicians, and friends and family in the United States and India. "Everybody is taking turns in shedding their tears, wiping it off and getting back to work," she said.
In India's Bhopal city, Devika Adhikari said her family was anxiously waiting for news of her elder brother, younger brother and two sisters-in-law, who are missing in Nepal. She said the family last spoke to them at around 9:30 a.m. local time on the day of the disaster. "In our last conversation, my elder brother told us that everyone's lives were in danger and that they had hidden in the mountains. He also asked us to take care of the children," she said.
Search and rescue operations are proving to be a significant challenge. Helicopters have been deployed to search for survivors and deliver emergency supplies to thousands of people cut off in the rugged mountainous area. However, extensive damage to roads and bridges has severely hampered ground access to affected zones.
Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said helicopters were dropping tents, food and medicine — supplied by neighbouring India — into the hardest-hit districts. More than 5,000 army and police personnel have joined the rescue effort. On Friday, reports indicated that the army had rescued 350 workers and residents trapped in a tunnel at the Upper Trishuli hydropower project.
Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah travelled by road to Bidur in the badly affected Nuwakot district to assess the situation. India evacuated thousands of people from its northern states bordering Nepal, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, as flooding threatened the Gandak River Basin. Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited the mudslide site in Tibet on Thursday to oversee emergency rescue and relief operations.
United States President Donald Trump said Washington had offered support to Nepal. "Nobody's ever seen anything quite like that, where very powerful, strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks. It's a terrible thing. We are sending aid and we've spoken to the leadership and we let them know anything they want, they'll have," he said.
Fresh dangers emerged on Friday morning when officials in Rasuwa district received notice that a lake had broken its banks. "We can see that the level of water in the river is rising," said Chief District Officer Narendra Pariyar, adding that the current water level remained unclear. Nepalese authorities temporarily halted rescue operations in the area for 90 minutes.
Chinese state media also warned on Friday that a dammed lake upstream of the Gyirong border port had begun to overflow. Aerial footage captured by a Chinese rescue team showed large volumes of brown water accumulating in a basin with no visible outlet. Residents on lower riverbanks in Nepal have been directed to move to higher ground, and all Chinese personnel and vehicles have withdrawn to safer areas as the risk of the lake bursting and potential secondary disasters, including avalanches and mountain collapses, continues to grow.
