Nepal flood toll hits 469, 1,400 missing as China pauses rescue on overflowing lake

Nepali soldiers battled Friday to reach 100 people trapped in a tunnel two days after deadly floods, as the risk of new torrents forced China to halt rescue efforts at its hardest-hit zone in Tibet.

Emergency teams have recovered 472 bodies after a tsunami-like wall of freezing water and mud crashed down on Wednesday, burying homes, smashing bridges and sweeping away vehicles in both Nepal and Tibet.

More than 1,400 people are missing, including trekkers in the Himalayas and scores of Hindu pilgrims to Tibet's sacred snow-capped Mount Kailash.

The US Geological Survey said the disaster -- the deadliest for Nepal since a 2015 earthquake -- was caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a vast flow of icy debris.

Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of top leaders about rescue operations in Tibet on Friday, two days after a landslide hit the Nepal-China border.

"All efforts must be made to search for and rescue missing people inside and outside of the country," officials of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo said at the meeting, according to Xinhua News Agency.

"There are still many hidden dangers of glaciers, ice lakes and geological disasters in the surrounding area, and rescue is facing great difficulties," Xinhua reported the leaders saying, adding that China was considering emergency aid to Nepal and "international relief cooperation".

Nepal issued a warning on Friday to move to higher ground after a dam upstream in Tibet was reported to have burst, two days after a glacial collapse caused deadly flooding.

"Information has been received that a water dam has burst again on the Tibetan side," police said in a statement. "All security personnel, rescue workers, and the general public deployed in rescue and relief operations are requested to remain alert and immediately move to a safe location/report the incident."

Indian authorities recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be victims of devastating floods, officials said Friday, underscoring the scale of the deadly disaster.

The bodies were found floating in rivers in the Maharajganj and Kushinagar districts of Uttar Pradesh state, which borders Nepal's southern flood-hit Chitwan region.

"Four unidentified bodies were recovered in the district on Thursday," Maharajganj district magistrate Gaurav Singh Sogarwal told AFP.

"We think they have been swept into India from Nepal following flash floods there."

Three more bodies were recovered in Kushinagar district, around 70 kilometres (43 miles) downstream from the frontier, a police official confirmed. 

Devastating floods on the Nepal-Tibet border region have killed at least 469 people, Nepali police said Friday, 48 hours after the disaster.

Chinese state media had earlier confirmed three dead, taking the total killed to at least 472. More than 1,400 people are missing, including hundreds of foreigners.

US officials said about 90 US citizens remained unaccounted for as of late Thursday (Aug. 27) after catastrophic flash floods engulfed a border area of China and Nepal. A spiritual organisation said that 22 Americans associated with it were unaccounted for.

In a statement, the US State Department said it is not aware of any U.S. deaths, but three Americans have been rescued.

Many of the missing were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others.

Social media posts were surfacing from loved ones pleading for people to provide updates or circulate information about Americans they had lost contact with — a Virginia woman traveling with a tour group, a Texas couple on a birthday trip, and a mother accompanying her 14-year-old daughter.

Among those on a guided tour was Venus Rajnikant Patel, a 45-year-old Indian-born US citizen who recently moved from St. Louis to Cincinnati to help his family.

Patel’s brother, Dennis, said Venus called him and their parents a few hours before the floods, showing them his hotel room on the Nepalese side of the border and talking about how excited he was to cross into Tibet. He had been planning the pilgrimage for two years, his brother said.

Patel’s friend Jolene Gosha said she and her friends knew Patel was in Nepal and were devastated when they realised his hotel was right along the border where the floods swept through.

More than 700 foreigners remain unaccounted for, Nepal authorities said late on Thursday.

The death toll has risen to 389 following the catastrophic landslide and flooding on the Nepal-Tibet border.

What we know so far:

• 389 dead: Nepal’s death toll has risen to at least 389, with rescue teams finding destroyed bridges, buried homes and heavily damaged infrastructure.

• 700+ foreigners missing: The number of people reported "missing" (more than 1,400 in total) raises fears that the disaster may have trapped tourists and travelers in remote areas.

• Trump offers US assistance: US President Donald Trump said Washington is willing to send “any help” needed to Nepal as rescue and recovery operations continue.

• New flooding threat in China: Heavy rain and cold weather are forecast in Gyirong County, Tibet, near the Nepal border. Authorities fear a temporary dam formed by the landslide could rupture, triggering another wave of flooding.

• Rescue operations hampered: Remote terrain, destroyed bridges, unstable slopes and worsening weather are complicating efforts to reach survivors and account for those still missing.

The disaster is now unfolding on two fronts: a massive search for survivors in Nepal and an urgent effort to prevent a secondary flood disaster across the border in China.

An artificial lake formed after a mudslide hit the Tibet-Nepal border poses a “high risk of breaching and sending floodwaters downstream”, China's state media warned.

The latest warning from Chinese authorities came after a deadly avalanche triggered a mudslide that killed more nearly 400 people with more than 1,400 still missing.

“According to forecasts, inflows into the lake could reach about 3 million cubic meters over the next three days amid continued rainfall, increasing the risk of a breach that could send floodwaters downstream and potentially cause further damage in areas including Gyirong Port and elsewhere downstream”, state news agency Xinhua said late on Thursday, cited by AFP.

Following is the latest breakout by country of at least 1,468 people missing in total from the Nepal-Tibet disaster, from the news agencies and authorities:

Americans- "About 90" US citizens are among at least 700 foreign nationals reported missing or unaccounted for.

Singapore- 9 Singaporeans were unaccounted for, the Nepal tourism board said on Thursday.

Germany- 8 German citizens are missing, the board said.

Russia- 8 Russians are unaccounted for, while two had been rescued, the board said.

Other nationalities

These numbers are from the Nepal tourism board’s updated figures, unless noted:

South Africa: 6

Latvia: 6

Japan: 5

New Zealand: 5 (foreign ministry and Nepal tourism board)

France: 4

Spain: 4 (Spanish foreign ministry. The Nepal tourism board put the figure at three)

Belgium: 3

Hungary: 3 (Hungarian foreign ministry. The Nepal tourism board put the figure at one.)

Italy: 3 missing (Italian foreign ministry), with two rescued (Nepal tourism board

Portugal: 3 (Portuguese foreign ministry and Nepal tourism board). The foreign ministry also said one person had been located.

Netherlands: 2

As rescue teams searched Thursday for missing people, Earth scientists reviewed satellite imagery for clues to the cause and assessed the devastation.

Geomorphologists Kristen Cook and Dan Shugar said initial images from Nepal on Wednesday were obscured by clouds and dust from the debris, so they could only see that part of a glacier had broken off from the Langtang Lirung peak, near the border with Tibet. In clearer images from Thursday, they said they could see that the bedrock underneath the glacier had collapsed, taking the massive chunk of ice down with it and sending boulders and ice into the valley.

Shugar said it's heart-wrenching to look downstream from there on the images, to where people were living, and see how the debris has buried villages.

After slamming to the valley floor, the debris maintained its momentum through the steep, narrow valley as ice melted, said Cook, at the Universite Grenoble Alpes in France. Water and mud several stories high swept through communities.

The Trishuli River surged during the flooding. Before and after satellite images of the Kolpurtar, Betrawati and Syapru Besi areas of Nepal show that the river is now much wider, and brown and black, because it overtopped its banks in some areas and filled with debris in others. The change in the color of the water shows how much sediment the flow was carrying, turning from greenish to very brown because it's full of mud, Cook said.