Published : 27 Aug 2026, 07:02 AM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:36 AM
The death toll from devastating flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border has risen to 157, police have said, as hundreds of people remain missing after a torrent of mud and rock tore through settlements on both sides of the frontier.
A huge wall of mud and rock collapsed into a river on Wednesday, unleashing catastrophic flooding in Nepal and triggering a mudslide at a border crossing in China’s Tibet.
Verified videos showed people scrambling for safety as the torrent swept away buildings, vehicles and roads. Houses, bridges and power projects were destroyed, while entire settlements were inundated or buried.
Nepal’s prime minister’s office said 95 bodies had initially been recovered and were awaiting identification, while 484 tourists were reported missing -- 391 foreigners and 93 Nepalis. The latest police figure of 157 deaths was issued early Thursday.
The missing foreign travellers included more than 100 Indians, three US citizens and 12 Britons, according to Nepal’s tourism ministry. Eight South Koreans working at a hydropower plant were also reported missing.
The region is a popular route to Kailash Manasarovar in Tibet, drawing hundreds of Hindu pilgrims from India and elsewhere during this time of year.
On the Chinese side, state broadcaster CCTV reported three deaths and 265 people missing in Gyirong, although authorities said the figures were still being verified.
‘My Wife is still Somewhere Beneath the Mud’
For survivors, the flood arrived with little warning.
“It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us. As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher. When I saw it enter our home, I tried to grab my wife’s hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud,” Reuters quoted Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor being treated at a small hospital, as saying.
“Four or five hours later, a helicopter came to rescue me. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She's gone.”
Another survivor said he escaped by clinging to a mango tree as the house where he had been working disappeared.
Quake May Have Triggered Collapse
Nepali officials said an earthquake may have caused the lower section of a glacier to collapse, triggering the flood.
The German Research Centre for Geosciences recorded a 4.4-magnitude earthquake about seven minutes before the time shown on security footage of the disaster.
An initial analysis of Planet Labs satellite imagery indicated that an ice-and-rock landslide triggered a debris-laden flood in the Lhende river, about 20km northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing, Nepal’s disaster management authority said.
The precise chain of events remained unconfirmed.
In Rasuwa district, helicopters ferried survivors through the day, while rescue aircraft struggled to land in the worst-hit areas of Syapru Besi and Timure.
Locals gathered outside a Nepali army training centre serving as the base for helicopter operations, desperately seeking news of missing relatives. Police recorded names outside the barracks using mobile phone flashlights as the area remained without electricity after hydropower infrastructure was damaged.
“There is devastation everywhere we look,” said Tula Bahadur BK, a health worker in Rasuwa. “The settlements next to the river have been completely swept away. Five of my own relatives are missing.”
Border Crossing Cut Off
China’s Xinhua news agency said the mudslide struck Gyirong port, severing roads, communications and power links in the Shigatse region.
The Chinese military dispatched drones to assess the damage and put transport aircraft, helicopters and other rescue equipment on standby.
A rescuer told CCTV that attempts to contact the Gyirong border port had so far failed, with drone reconnaissance showing that all roads leading to the crossing had been “completely destroyed”.
The floodwaters had surged down from an elevation of nearly 2,000m, prompting flood alerts in India’s Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, which border Nepal.
Bihar authorities said about 5,000 people had been evacuated from six districts and planned to move another 10,000 to 12,000 to safer areas.
[With input from Reuters]
