Death toll nears 400, rescuers search for 1,400 missing after Nepal-Tibet floods

Rescue teams waded through mud on Thursday searching for more than 1,400 people missing after flash floods and landslides struck the Nepal-Tibet border. The death toll rose to 392, with entire villages swept away by a wall of icy debris triggered by a glacial collapse.

What caused the Nepal-Tibet floods?

The US Geological Survey said a glacial collapse triggered a vast flow of icy debris and mud, initially mistaken for a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. Climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, raising the risk of similar glacial lake floods and collapses. The debris travelled nearly 170 kilometers into Nepal.

How many people are missing in Nepal and Tibet?

Nepali police said they had recovered 389 bodies, while another 910 people, including 517 foreign tourists, were out of contact in the country. Beijing said 100 Chinese citizens, not included in that tally, are also missing in Nepal. Indians make up the largest number of missing foreigners, and the United States said 90 of its citizens were out of contact.

Many of the missing are foreign tourists, including trekkers, as well as scores of Hindu pilgrims returning from Tibet's sacred Mount Kailash. Other foreigners out of contact include citizens of Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and South Korea, according to Nepal's tourism board. In China, state media said the "mudslide disaster" at Tibet's Gyirong Port killed three people, with 558 people, including 260 foreigners, missing.

How are rescue teams responding to the disaster?

Emergency teams were racing to pull survivors from affected zones, while Nepali soldiers used sniffer dogs to search for bodies buried under the debris. "It is a giant graveyard," said Omkar Joshi, a 35 year old Nepali customs agent rescued from a hilltop in the border town of Timure. "All that is left are sand and pebbles, soaked red by human blood," he told AFP.

Chinese officials in Tibet mobilized nearly 800 emergency workers, along with sniffer dogs and speed boats, to support rescue efforts, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited the area on Thursday to oversee relief work, according to state media. Tibet's autonomous region remains largely inaccessible to foreign journalists.

How has Nepal's government responded to the floods?

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah urged the nation to "stand together" hours after the disaster and toured some of the hardest hit areas on Thursday. His office said he told local authorities to provide immediate relief to displaced families and to reopen blocked roads. Promises of international aid began arriving soon after the scale of the disaster became clear.

Environmental historian Ruth Gamble, of Australia's La Trobe University, described the sudden rush of mud and debris as "like an inland tsunami." Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, said he would pray for those who lost their lives. Indian spiritual leader Sadhguru said scores of Hindu devotees from around the world were among those missing on the border.

Could more floods hit the Nepal-Tibet border?

Experts warned of the risk of further flooding, with water trapped behind immense piles of debris blocking the valley. Qianggong Zhang, head of climate and environmental risks at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, said a second flood may occur while the blockage remains lodged upstream on the Nepal-China border river. Kathmandu's Flood Forecasting Division issued a special notice on Thursday, warning of a growing lake behind the debris and urging extreme caution.

The Hindu pilgrims caught in the floods were returning from Mount Kailash on the Chinese side of the border when they were trapped at an immigration post. "The entire group was there in the building," Sadhguru said in a video message to his followers, weeping as he spoke from Tibet, with the wails of other pilgrims audible behind him. "This is a terrible and extraordinary event," he said.