At least 1,114 people have died and nearly 4,000 more are missing in Nepal following catastrophic flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border, according to Nepal's disaster agency. On the Tibetan side, 21 deaths have been confirmed, with more than 540 people unaccounted for, Chinese state media report.
The floods, believed to have been triggered by a glacial collapse, swept through a Himalayan valley last Wednesday and wiped out villages. Nearly 12,000 people have been rescued since, but thousands more remain missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals from India, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Malaysia, and other countries.
According to the BBC, the United Nations says Nepal is intensifying relief and recovery operations even as rescuers scramble to reach anyone who may still be alive. The UN secretary-general's spokesman said the priority for thousands of people is delivering aid, recovering loved ones, tracing missing relatives, and reunifying separated children.
Rescue efforts remain complicated. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says the main challenge is access, with more than 40 bridges destroyed. The most remote communities are receiving supplies by army helicopter. Villages are still struggling for fuel and electricity.
Hundreds of workers are believed to be trapped in Nepalese hydropower tunnels. Rescuers using heavy machinery have been working around the clock. Experts from China and India are helping build temporary bridges to reach remote areas, and drones are being deployed over hard-to-reach locations to scan for survivors.
Chinese rescue teams have re-opened the route to the Gyirong border crossing between Nepal and Tibet and cleared the road of debris, which Chinese state media said will accelerate the search for the missing. No survivors have yet been found at that crossing.
Beijing, which annexed Tibet in the 1950s, tightly controls the region. All information comes through state media, and foreign journalists cannot travel there without permission. The full impact of the flood on the Tibetan side remains unclear.
In Nepal, nearly 3,500 people have been displaced and are sheltering across 27 sites in the districts of Nuwakot and Rasuwa, mostly in schools. The UN's humanitarian coordination office said overcrowded shelters, contaminated water, and damaged health facilities are raising the risk of disease during the monsoon season.
