The death toll from catastrophic flooding across Nepal and neighbouring Tibet has climbed to 472, with more than a thousand people still unaccounted for as search efforts stretch into a third day.
Nepali authorities have confirmed 469 deaths, according to figures reported by The Kathmandu Post on Friday, while Chinese officials have confirmed three fatalities in the Xizang Autonomous Region, also known as Tibet, pushing the combined toll to 472.
The scale of the missing remains staggering. Nepal’s Tourism Board reported 667 people unaccounted for as of late Thursday, including a number of foreign nationals, while Chinese authorities say more than 550 people are missing on their side of the border, among them 260 foreigners.
The disaster began early Wednesday, when flash floods and landslides tore through communities in northern and central Nepal along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers, dragging homes, people and debris downstream. Bridges, roads and other infrastructure were destroyed, cutting off entire communities and stranding travellers.
Nepal’s army, police and armed police force are leading search and rescue operations, using helicopters to reach cut-off areas and pull out survivors while ground crews comb riverbanks and settlements further downstream. The Tourism Board says it is still working to confirm the status of tourists who were travelling through the hard-hit districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading when disaster struck. With transport links badly damaged and casualty figures still being cross-checked across affected regions, the true scale of the disaster has yet to come into full focus.
Across the border, Chinese authorities are working urgently to head off a second wave of flooding at the border crossing linking Tibet to Nepal, where debris has dammed two lakes that officials warn could burst.
Both Nepal and China issued fresh flood warnings on Thursday over the barrier lakes, which formed after glacial debris blocked river flow on either side of the frontier. China has sent an eight-member engineering team to carry out aerial surveys and build 3D models of the largest lake, state broadcaster CCTV reported Friday.
Team member Chen Hanxiao told CCTV that the collapse which formed the lake left behind a landscape of isolated, steep cliffs that have made reaching the site extremely difficult. He said engineers are looking at cutting a drainage channel through a lower section of the debris dam, though the channel’s dimensions still need to be calculated based on projected water flow and how quickly the lake is filling. Surveys so far show the lake stretches about 150 metres long and 40 to 50 metres deep, holding an estimated 1.5 to 2 million cubic metres of water. Engineers now plan to monitor the lake closely and gather data from its floor, alongside ongoing weather tracking.
Conditions near the Gyirong border crossing remain precarious, with light to moderate rain further loosening soil and rock around the unstable zone upstream — rain that is forecast to persist through the coming week. Chinese officials warned Thursday that roughly 3 million cubic metres of additional water, equivalent to about 1,200 Olympic swimming pools, is expected to pour into the still-blocked lake over the next three days, raising the risk of a breach, with peak inflow expected around September 1.
Aerial footage released by state broadcaster CGTN showed the barrier lake taking shape, with murky brown water pooling in a basin with no visible outlet, already submerging trees and bushes and pressing against the wall of debris and stone holding it back.
