Devastating floods near Nepal’s border with China have killed at least 675 people in Nepal, the country’s disaster authority said on Saturday, with the death toll across the affected region rising to 682.
Chinese state media reported seven deaths in Tibet following Wednesday’s disaster.
The number of people missing in Nepal stood at 2,426, including 517 foreigners and 933 workers employed on hydropower projects along the river hit by the floods, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
The missing also include 45 Nepali Army personnel, 40 police officers and 19 immigration and customs officials.
The disaster struck an area containing major energy infrastructure projects, while trekkers and pilgrims travelling to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash were also among those reported missing.
Survivors described widespread destruction, saying entire settlements along the river had been swept away.
“All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” survivor Buddhi Ram Dangol told AFP.
The Red Cross said the disaster had affected as many as 93,000 people, warning that the death toll could rise as rescue teams continued searching devastated areas.
Emergency workers raced to reach survivors as food and water supplies dwindled. However, large lakes formed by the flow of ice and mud created additional risks for rescue teams.
Nepali police ordered rescuers to move to safer locations after receiving reports that another water dam had burst on the Tibetan side of the border.
In Tibet, Chinese authorities temporarily suspended rescue operations in the worst-hit area of Gyirong over fears of renewed flooding before later reporting that the immediate threat had eased.
On the Nepali side, the military was working to rescue people trapped inside tunnels at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project.
“Two helicopters have been dispatched, but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,” army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.
Basnet said about 350 workers and residents had been rescued from the site, while efforts continued to reach more than 100 people believed to remain trapped.
Workers rescued from other hydropower projects along the Trishuli Valley described how quickly the floods struck.
Buddha Tamang said he survived because he was inside a tunnel at the dam where he worked when the flood hit.
“The senior officers working on the other side, they were all swept away,” Tamang told AFP after being airlifted to safety on Thursday following more than 24 hours stranded at the site.
Across the border in Tibet, Xinhua reported that seven people had died while 554 remained missing. Authorities said 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents had been evacuated.
Indian authorities also reported recovering seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be victims of the floods.
Among those missing are Hindu pilgrims from several countries who had travelled towards Mount Kailash in Tibet.
Sivaranjani Muthunathan, 46, was travelling by bus with 56 other people towards the Chinese border when the group became trapped.
She said what initially appeared to be a traffic jam suddenly turned into a devastating torrent.
“Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us,” Muthunathan told AFP, describing how she and others escaped through the driver’s side of the bus before scrambling up a hill.
