Nepal-China floods death toll reaches 691 as nearly 3,000 remain missing

Kathmandu, Nepal: The number of people missing in the catastrophic flood that sliced through the border area between Nepal and Tibet neared 3,000 on Sunday, as rescuers scoured deep, leg-sucking mud for survivors.

Figures from Nepal and from Chinese authorities in charge of Tibet put the total number of missing close to 3,000, with 691 bodies recovered .

Nepal says there are 2,426 people, including hundreds of foreigners, who are out of contact in the country. It reported an updated death toll of 675 people on Saturday.

Tibet, an autonomous region of China, was largely inaccessible to foreign journalists, preventing independent reporting on the scale of the disaster in an area which has multiple villages. 

China's state broadcaster CCTV said on Sunday that 546 people were missing and 16 people had been killed. 

Of those missing, 261 were foreign nationals, it said.

More than 100 workers are believed to be trapped inside multiple hydropower tunnels.

The Nepali army was able late on Saturday to insert a pipe into one of the tunnels at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site "sending air through the small opening", Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement.

Those trapped were among 933 missing workers from hydropower projects on the rivers where the torrent of icy debris swept down.

India, which has extensive experience in such rescues, has sent an 11-person specialised team. China has also sent a nine-person tunnel team to help.

Nepal's reconstruction bill could run into "billions of dollars", Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said. 

"We will do loss and damage research and then we plan, but I am reaching out to our international community for support."

At an army base in the Nepali town of Bidur, a key rescue hub, relatives crowded around lists of rescued people pasted on a wall.

"I have come here looking for my son," said Kalka Sharda, scanning the list in desperation. "He was a labourer at the hydropower plant, but I can't find his name, and the authorities are not saying anything."

India is stepping up monitoring of its Himalayan regions bordering China and Nepal, days after the deadly flood apparently triggered by a glacial collapse.

"Since we share a border with Nepal, as a neighbour, and also have a similar geographic situation... we have asked our department to monitor all the glaciers and known glacial lakes in the region," said Madan Kaushik, state disaster management minister in India's Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

As many as 93,000 people in Nepal are potentially affected by the disaster, according to the Red Cross.

Nepal appealed on Friday for international financial assistance, as well as specialised rescue support, including heavy lift drones, DNA testing kits, and body freezer storage units.

The United States and Canada said they would each provide around $3.6 million in humanitarian assistance.

The UK has offered $6.8 million in aid while the UN released $2.5 million in emergency funding.

The European Union on Friday promised $2.3 million and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) allocated more than $1 million and launched an emergency appeal for $31 million.

Chinese President Xi Jinping offered Beijing's help on Friday.