Catastrophic flash floods and landslides triggered by a suspected glacial lake outburst along the Nepal-Tibet border have killed more than 160 people and left at least 1,500 missing, including dozens of foreign tourists and citizens, as rescue teams struggle to reach cut-off Himalayan communities.
The Scale of Destruction Along the Trishuli and Bhote Koshi Rivers
The disaster struck a vast region spanning northern Nepal and Tibet, where a wall of water swept away entire settlements, bridges, and infrastructure. According to Al Jazeera, the flash flood was propelled down from upstream in Tibet where the river is known as the Bhotekoshi. Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Office reported that 19 vehicle bridges and 43 kilometers of highway connecting lower regions to the affected areas have been destroyed.
Healthcare worker Rajendra Poudel described the devastation in the Nuwakot district. Till early this morning it was very scenic around here. There were houses and horticulture gardens here. There was a hydropower station and plant. Everything has been swept away
, Poudel told Al Jazeera.
Families Desperately Search Hospitals and Riversides for Missing Relatives
In Kathmandu, relatives of the missing have crowded hospitals searching for news. Ram Khumari Shrestha held up her phone at the TU Teaching Hospital, explaining to BBC News that her husband was driving a route to Rasuwa when communication cut off. This is my husband. He was off to Rasuwa as a part of his driving job. He was in contact with me until 8 pm yesterday. But I couldn’t call him this morning. The phone was switched off
, she said.
Other families face similar anguish. Rajan Nepali searched the National Trauma Center in Kathmandu for his missing brother-in-law, who had been accompanying tourists in Rasuwa. We have been looking for him in hospitals. We do not know where to go, what to do
, Nepali told Al Jazeera.
“As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher. When I saw it enter our home, I tried to grab my wife’s hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.”
Keshav Prasad Baral, survivor, via ABC News
International Tourists and Aid Operations
The missing population includes hundreds of foreign nationals and religious pilgrims traveling through the Himalayan border region. According to figures compiled by ABC News, the missing include 177 people from India, 63 from the United States, 33 from Britain, and 25 from Canada. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that at least 34 Australians are also unaccounted for in the disaster zone.
Emergency services have deployed helicopters to airlift survivors and drop supplies to thousands of people cut off by destroyed roads. In the Nuwakot district, bulldozers and heavy earthmovers were pressed into service to rescue residents stranded in partially submerged buildings.
Rising Toll and Recovery Challenges
Police and local authorities caution that the confirmed death toll will climb significantly as search teams push deeper into isolated terrain and floodwaters recede. Nepal Police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told ABC News that search operations have resumed with expectations of finding more victims. This will go up, as we have resumed the search and more bodies are expected to be recovered
, Kafle said.
Former Nepalese minister Padam Giri, visiting the United States when the disaster struck, noted that the flood arrived with such velocity that advance warnings could not reach every vulnerable settlement in time. Experts comparing the event to past disasters point out that last August, a glacial lake overflow in Tibet killed nine people and damaged cross-border infrastructure, including a bridge connecting Nepal and China, but the current catastrophe has a higher death toll.
