Nepal-Tibet flood death toll climbs to 168 as over 1,300 remain missing

At least 168 people have died and more than 1,300 remain missing following flash floods and mudslides along the Nepal-Tibet border, according to the Associated Press, citing Nepalese and Chinese authorities.

In Nepal, 165 people have died and 826 remain missing, Nepalese authorities said, according to the Associated Press. Separately, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported that 41 people injured in the floods were receiving treatment in hospitals, citing Nepalese police.

In Tibet, three people were killed and 558 others were reported missing after a mudslide in a border area, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.

The flooding and landslides have also damaged villages, roads and other infrastructure.

Cause of the Nepal-Tibet disaster

The flooding was triggered by a glacier collapse, not an earthquake as first suspected. The US Geological Survey initially recorded a magnitude 4.4 earthquake near the Nepal-China border on Wednesday, but later revised this, saying the event was a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse, based on seismic data and satellite imagery, according to the Associated Press.

Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development said an avalanche from a glacier likely caused the flood, noting that water levels on the Trishuli river rose by as much as nine metres in half an hour, the Associated Press reported.

Rescue and relief operations in Nepal

Nepal's army rescued more than 100 people from flood-affected areas through helicopter operations on Thursday morning, according to army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, as reported by the Associated Press. At least eight foreign nationals were airlifted to Kathmandu, he said.

Bishal Kumar Bhandari, chairman of the Nepal Red Cross Society, said the organisation had shifted focus from rescue to large-scale relief operations, with around 1,200 people displaced from at least three villages, the Associated Press reported.

Nepalese officials said dozens of bridges were destroyed and nearly 40 kilometres of roads were damaged, complicating search efforts, according to the Associated Press.

Hundreds of foreigners unaccounted for

Nepal's Tourism Board said 517 of the missing in the country were foreign nationals, including 178 from India, more than 60 from the United States, and others from around 30 countries, the Associated Press reported.

Indian spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev said on social media platform X that 77 members of a pilgrimage group from his Isha Foundation, travelling to Mount Kailash, were caught in the floods at an immigration office on the Nepal-China border, including 22 US nationals whose whereabouts remained unknown, according to the Associated Press.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said nearly 100 Chinese citizens were missing on the Nepal side of the border, and that 260 of those missing in Tibet were foreign nationals, the Associated Press reported.

The village of Soley in Nepal's Nuwakot district, home to around 25 households, was described as ‘virtually wiped out’ by Nirajan Paudyal, a Kathmandu-based journalist whose relatives live there, according to the Associated Press.