Kathmandu, August 29, 2026: The death toll from devastating floods and landslides near Nepal’s border with China has risen to at least 675, Nepal’s disaster management authority said Saturday, as rescuers continued a desperate search for 2,426 people still missing days after a massive torrent of water, ice and debris swept through Himalayan communities.
Seven people were also confirmed dead in China’s Tibet region, bringing the overall death toll from Wednesday’s disaster to at least 682.
The scale of the catastrophe continued to emerge as rescue teams struggled through thick mud and debris to reach affected communities, recover bodies and locate survivors. Entire settlements along the river were swept away by what survivors described as a tsunami-like wall of water and debris.
According to Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, the list of missing includes 517 foreigners and 933 workers associated with hydropower projects along the affected river. It also includes 45 Nepali Army personnel, 40 police officers and 19 immigration and customs officials.
Authorities in India have separately recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal that are believed to be linked to the floods, although they have not been included in Nepal’s official death toll.
Rescue workers have been battling extremely difficult conditions, with thick mud hampering efforts to reach affected areas.
Kawan Koirala, a member of the Nepal Scout Disaster Response Team, described the devastation as unlike anything he had previously witnessed.
“People want their family’s body back, either dead or alive, but we cannot find them,” he told AFP after working an 18-hour shift.
“All we can see is mud,” he said, describing the disaster as deeply traumatic.
Survivors said entire communities along the river had disappeared within minutes.
“All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” survivor Buddhi Ram Dangol told AFP.
At an army base in Bidur, one of the key rescue centres in the affected district, relatives gathered around lists of rescued people in the hope of finding missing family members.
Samjhana Thing said she had been waiting for three days for information about her brother, while another woman, Kalka Sharda, searched desperately for her son, who had been working at a hydropower plant.
The disaster has particularly affected Nepal’s expanding hydropower sector, with hundreds of workers reported missing from projects along the Trishuli River valley.
Nepalese soldiers were working to reach more than 100 people believed to be trapped inside a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project.
The Prime Minister’s Office said teams had begun clearing mud and debris from the tunnel entrance, while a specialised Indian tunnel-rescue team had arrived to assist the operation.
Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said two helicopters had been deployed but locating the tunnel entrances remained extremely difficult.
Around 350 workers and residents had already been brought to safety from the site, he said, while rescue efforts continued for more than 100 people still believed to be trapped.
Survivors from other hydropower projects described how quickly the disaster unfolded.
Buddha Tamang said he survived because he was inside a tunnel when the flood struck the project where he worked.
“The senior officers working on the other side, they were all swept away,” he said.
The US Geological Survey said the catastrophe was caused by a glacial collapse that generated a massive downstream torrent carrying ice, water, rocks and debris.
The disaster struck the border region between Nepal and Tibet, causing extensive destruction on both sides.
In Tibet, where access for foreign journalists is severely restricted, Chinese state media reported seven deaths and 554 people missing. Authorities said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents from affected areas.
The disaster has also affected international tourists and pilgrims travelling towards Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash. Among the 517 foreigners listed as missing in Nepal are trekkers and pilgrims.
Meanwhile, the immediate threat from a lake formed following the glacial collapse appeared to be diminishing, Chinese authorities said.
Satellite imagery collected between Thursday and Saturday morning indicated that water from the lake, located near the confluence of two rivers along the China-Nepal border, was gradually draining.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV, citing the Water Resources Ministry, reported that portions of the lake bed had become visible by Saturday afternoon.
The lake on the Purepu Tsangpo River covered approximately 99,000 square metres early Saturday, equivalent to about 14 football pitches, after shrinking by around 21,000 square metres since Thursday.
The development has eased fears of another catastrophic outburst flood, although authorities remain on alert.
The Red Cross said the disaster had caused “enormous” trauma and could have affected as many as 93,000 people. It warned that the death toll was likely to rise as rescue teams gain access to isolated and heavily damaged areas.
Communities across the affected region have been left short of food and drinking water, while damaged roads and infrastructure are complicating relief operations.
Climate scientists have warned that the melting of glaciers is increasing the risk of glacial collapses and related floods, although the precise chain of events behind Wednesday’s disaster remains under investigation.
The disaster also struck a major route used by Hindu pilgrims travelling towards Mount Kailash in Tibet.
Sivaranjani Muthunathan, who was travelling by bus with 56 other people towards the Chinese border, said the group initially believed they had encountered an ordinary traffic jam.
She said the situation changed suddenly as fog and what appeared to be smoke engulfed the area and a powerful torrent rushed towards the vehicles.
Several vehicles were swept away or buried in mud, she said, while passengers escaped through the driver’s side of the bus and scrambled to higher ground.
With thousands still missing across Nepal and Tibet, rescue teams are racing against time to locate survivors while families continue to wait anxiously for news of their loved ones.
