Nepal-Tibet flash flood: number of missing people in Nepal rises to 1,924 – latest updates | Nepal-Tibet flood disaster

Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Gaurav Pokharel in Bidur, Nepal.

Sangke Dolma Tamang, 61, had been cheerily cooking snacks in her village of Mailung in the Rasuwa district when the floods came without warning. The whole family ran uphill for safety, but as she grabbed for her husband, he slipped from her grip and was washed into the dark, fast-moving waters.

“Others tried to pull him to safety, but the flood swept him away,” she said, tears rolling down her weathered cheeks. There was, she said, nothing left of her village now. She had spent a night sheltering on higher ground, until an army helicopter arrived and brought to her safety at the barracks. Her son too was missing since the disaster, and she waited anxiously for any news.

“Now I have nothing left to live for,” said Tamang. “The whole house is gone. We couldn’t salvage anything.”

As a melting glacier high up in the Himalayas between Tibet and Nepal splintered and crashed into the valley below, it set off a deadly cascade of water, mud and debris down the Bhote Koshi River. The Nepali village homes that lined the riverbank and clung to the mountainside stood little chance.

Two days after the disaster, at least 579 people have been confirmed dead and more than 1,900 are still missing, the numbers rising by the day. Many in Nepal fear that the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge, as the worst-hit areas in districts such as Rusawa are only accessible by helicopter. The situation remains even more opaque in Tibet, which is under tight Chinese media control. Though it was at the centre of the disaster, Chinese authorities insist only five people there have died.

In the army barracks in the town of Bidur, where Nepal’s rescue efforts were being coordinated, helicopters carrying those rescued from flooded areas continued to arrive every few minutes, while others carrying vital supplies of food and clean water flew out and high up into the mountains.

On Friday morning, ground rescue efforts were halted over fears that the river levels were rising once again. But the Nepali army spokesperson, Brig Gen Raja Ram Basnet, said the helicopter rescues would continue for as long as people were missing. He accepted that the death toll was hard to calculate. “Right now, our focus is mostly on finding the living,” he said.

Among those recently brought to safety was 60-year-old Murali Maiya Tamang, who had been in Rusawa and was found hanging in a tree. As the flash floods came down the valley, she had watched as her house was washed clean away. She convulsed with tears as she waited desperately for news of her son, who was in their village when the floods struck and has been missing since.

“My husband had already died in Nepal’s 2015 earthquake,” she said. “Now this flood has taken away the only son I had left. I am all alone now. What is the point of living now?”

You can read the full piece, with photographs and video by Ahmer Khan, here:

This drone video shared with the Guardian shows the moment of glacier collapse that led to the devastating flash flooding in Nepal. The numbers of people missing, killed or injured are feared to continue to rise as rescue efforts are under way.

The death toll has risen to seven and 554 remain missing after the mudslide at a border port in China’s Xizang region, according to local reports.

Rescue efforts are continuing in Nepal and Tibet after flash floods that have killed hundreds and left many more missing.

But fears that a lake formed by the landslide could overflow and cause fresh flooding, along with difficulty accessing disaster-hit areas, are hindering rescue and recovery missions.

In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks with the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen, who is in Nepal, about the situation on the ground.

• Nepal’s disaster authority raised sharply the number of missing to 1,924 on Friday, two days after devastating floods that killed at least 579 in the country. The number of missing includes 517 foreigners, as well as 933 workers on hydropower projects on the rivers where a wall of water powered down on Wednesday morning, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.

• The Red Cross has said at least 93,000 people may have been affected by Wednesday’s flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border, triggering a huge rescue operation that is being hampered by fears of new flooding. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network, said it feared the death toll would continue to rise as some of the hardest-hit areas remained inaccessible after roads and bridges were destroyed by the torrents.

• Rescue teams have reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border. Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for advanced medical care and more than 100 people were rescued by Nepali army personnel in helicopters.

• Families are rushing to Nepal to search for the 33 British nationals who are still missing, as fears mount over the risk of a second wave of flooding in the region. The catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and sweeping away entire villages.

• A family from Surrey, including a 13-year-old girl, are thought to be among the missing Britons in Nepal, PA Media reports. The news agency named the family as Santosh Sahu, 46, who was the chief executive of UK pharmaceutical technology company Charac, his wife, Surabhi Manmath Padhy, 44, and their children, Spandan Sahu, 18, and Syna Kumari Sahu, 13.

• Rescue efforts in Bidur, the capital of the Nuwakot district in Bagmati province, Nepal, were disrupted on Friday morning as the Trishuli River began to rise again after the lake near the border overflowed. Rescue workers were moved from the area and people who had tried to return to what remained of their homes were told to evacuate again immediately.

• The European Union has promised €2m ($2.3m) in aid for Nepal after devastating floods on the country’s border with Tibet swept away entire villages, killing hundreds of people. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X that the “immediate humanitarian aid” would help “deliver life-saving assistance to families and communities hit hardest.”

• Nepal has said it does not yet need foreign assistance as the search and rescue operation – complicated by the destruction of bridges and roads across the mountainous region – continues. “The offer for help is natural,” Lok Bahadur Chhetri, a spokesperson for Nepal’s foreign ministry, said on Friday. “Our security agencies ‌are doing the search and rescue operation. For now we don’t require such help.”

• Authorities in Nepal and China issued warnings about the risk of a second wave of flooding. Chinese authorities said an artificial lake had formed after a mudslide hit the Tibet-Nepal border, which risked “sending flood waters downstream”, according to state media. Nepal’s disaster authority said a lake that had formed by debris blocking a river at the site was also rising and ‌at risk of bursting.

• In a video on YouTube, Jaggi Vasudev, known as Sadhguru, a spiritual leader who founded the nonprofit Isha Foundation, told followers at the foundation’s camp at Saga in Tibet, China, that 80 members of an Isha group returning from Kailash Mansarovar, a high-altitude site in ‌Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists, were missing, including nine British people. Among them is Neetu Goyal Tiwari, 51. Her brother Naresh Goyal told the BBC that completing the pilgrimage was “her dream”.

• Rescuers were forced to suspend their search for survivors, while residents who had returned to Rasuwa were told to evacuate their homes, with many seen fleeing up the hillsides to escape a possible surge in the river.

At least 93,000 ‘in great need’ after Nepal-Tibet flash floods, says Red Cross

Hannah Ellis-Petersen

The Red Cross has said at least 93,000 people may have been affected by Wednesday’s flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border, which have killed more than 540 people, left another 1,500 missing, and triggered a huge rescue operation that is being hampered by fears of new flooding.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network, said it feared the death toll would continue to rise as some of the hardest-hit areas remained inaccessible after roads and bridges were destroyed by the torrents.

“The trauma of this event is enormous,” David Fisher, the IFRC head of delegation for Nepal, said on Friday.

“Thousands of homes have been destroyed or suffered significant damage. We believe that at least 93,000 people have been affected and are in great need. The death toll is very high and unfortunately likely to continue to rise.”

Nepal’s disaster authority raised sharply the number of missing to 1,924 on Friday, two days after devastating floods that killed at least 579 in the country.

The number of missing includes 517 foreigners, as well as 933 workers on hydropower projects on the rivers where a wall of water powered down on Wednesday morning, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.