BIDUR (Nepal), Aug 30 — Rescuers in Nepal and China battled through leg-sucking mud, as well as the threat of rising rivers and a newly formed lake, today to search for thousands missing after a deadly wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayas, engulfing entire villages.
Latest figures from both countries put the number of missing at 3,048, including hundreds of foreigners. There were 768 confirmed deaths, with reports of some bodies possibly swept downstream as far away as India.
Nepal said it had begun the grim task of burying some of the hundreds of bodies today, after first taking DNA samples so that families could later reclaim them and perform traditional funeral rites once they had been identified.
The disaster, which struck the China-Nepal border Wednesday morning, was caused by a glacial collapse, sending a wall of water and debris downstream, the US Geological Survey said.
Nepali army troops and engineers also drilled through debris on Sunday towards hydropower workers believed trapped in a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site in the Himalayan river valley after they successfully inserted a pipe into the passage.
They have “started sending air through the small opening”, Nepali Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement.
Overnight rain and rising river waters hampered efforts earlier today, filling the excavation area with water before conditions eased, the Nepal army said.
Nepal’s disaster authority listed 933 hydropower workers among the missing in an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects.
Chinese rescuers near the Tibet border port that was hit by a deadly mudslide were “moved to a safe location” today after a new lake was formed by a landslide, state media reported.
China’s state news agency Xinhua reported today that experts had said “a glacier on the southern slope of Lirung Peak in Nepal” fractured, triggering an ice-rock avalanche.
The torrent plummeted rapidly, forming a massive debris flow that travelled more than 20 kilometres before crashing into Gyirong Port.
“The sudden glacial collapse and flash flood is a devastating reminder of how fragile these mountain environments can be,” UN climate chief Simon Stiell said in a statement.
‘Nothing left’
Survivors face an agonising wait to learn the fate of missing relatives and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing.
“All the settlements near the river were swept away,” resident Buddhi Ram Dangol told AFP in Nepal’s Nuwakot district.
“There is nothing left.”
Worried relatives crowded around lists of rescued people pasted on a wall at an army base serving as a rescue hub in the district capital Bidur.
Nepal’s disaster authority said today 592 foreigners, including trekkers and Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash, were among the missing.
The Isha Foundation, led by Indian guru Sadhguru, said in an Instagram post yesterday that 80 members had been on a group trip in the area.
“At this time, there seems to be no encouraging indications of survivors at the immigration office area,” it said.
‘Enormous’ trauma
The United States and Canada said they would provide US$3.6 million (RM14.5 million) each in humanitarian aid to Nepal.
The UK has offered US$6.8 million, while the UN released US$2.5 million in emergency funding, and aid pledges were made by the European Union, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and others.
Nepal’s economy is already under pressure, with limited resources to respond to a disaster of this scale. Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said the reconstruction bill could run into “billions of dollars”.
He appealed for specialised assistance, including heavy-lift drones and technology to help locate people who are trapped.
Malaysia said it would send search-and-rescue specialists to assist.
Khanal also called for forensic testing kits to identify corpses and freezer units to store them, saying bodies that have been in water could decompose at a faster rate.
The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes, and one of those formations has become a risk for further floods.
The Chinese and Nepali foreign ministers spoke yesterday and discussed sharing satellite and hydrological data, both sides said.
In Tibet, where Chinese authorities are the only source of information, rescue operations were paused at the hardest-hit area of Gyirong because of the risk of more flooding from a newly formed lake.
However, state broadcaster CCTV said late yesterday that the lake was “discharging naturally” and had been “essentially drained”, citing China’s ministry of water resources.
A total of 2,141 rescuers were near the Gyirong site, the Xinhua state news agency said.
Pilgrimage route
Nepal reported a death toll of 752 people today, with 2,502 people unaccounted for.
Across the border in Tibet, 16 people died and 546 remain missing, CCTV reported.
Authorities also said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents from Tibet.
In India, officials said they had recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be flood victims. — AFP
Date: 30 August, 2026 8:00 pm
Source: Malay Mail
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