The death toll from the devastating flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border has climbed to 579 in Nepal, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA). Chinese authorities have separately confirmed five deaths in Tibet, taking the overall toll past 584. Search operations continued for a third day on Friday for 1,924 people still missing in Nepal, including 517 foreigners and 933 workers on hydropower projects.
Rescue efforts were repeatedly disrupted on Friday after warnings that barrier lakes formed by the debris flow had begun to overflow. The NDRRMA said the water level, mixed with mud, had risen at the same site where the flood struck on Wednesday, raising the risk of fresh flooding. Nepal is monitoring two new glacial lakes near the apparent source of the disaster, one measuring 19.80 hectares and another 7.28 hectares, and officials said the flood risk will remain until the lakes fully drain.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said at least 320 Indian nationals remain uncontactable and around 400 others are stranded on the Chinese side. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said 96 Indians stranded in China had crossed into Nepal by land, and 21 pilgrims from Tamil Nadu arrived in New Delhi on Friday, received by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. India has offered a specialised rescue team and dispatched consignments of relief material.
Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal denied that the country had refused international assistance, saying the government wants to prioritise maximum deployment of its own security forces, familiar with local terrain, at the initial stage. Foreign governments including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, the European Union and Sri Lanka have announced aid pledges, while UNICEF said at least 17,000 children need urgent humanitarian assistance and 18 schools have been destroyed.
Preliminary assessments by Chinese and Nepali experts suggest the disaster was triggered by the collapse of a high-altitude glacier near the Langtang Lirung peak. Scientists believe a mass of ice, rock and debris detached at roughly 5,200 metres and plunged into the Lhende Khola system, temporarily blocking the river before surging downstream through the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river systems, damaging settlements nearly 100 km away. More than 100 people remain trapped in a hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa district, where the Nepali Army has deployed helicopters and rescued two people so far.
Relief operations are expected to continue under the shadow of renewed flood risk, with authorities in both countries relying on satellite imagery and installing downstream monitoring equipment as families gather at hospitals in Kathmandu searching for missing relatives.
