Search underway for 1,000 missing after deadly Nepal-Tibet floods

Search underway for 1, 000 missing after deadly Nepal-Tibet floods.

Key points

• "Entire villages and market areas have been wiped out, " remarked David Fisher, the Nepal head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
• Throughout the border, Chinese state media stated the "mudslide disaster" at the Gyirong Port in Tibet asserted three lives while 558 residents, including 260 foreigners, were still missing.
• Some 468 tourists – 393 of them foreigners – were unaccounted for a day after the disaster struck, according to Nepal's tourism ministry.
• Qianggong Zhang, head of climate and environmental risks at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), cautioned of the potential for a second flood.
• On China's end, rescuers were seeking 558 missing, including 260 foreign nationals, according to local authorities quoted by state broadcaster CCTV.

Search underway for 1, 000 missing after deadly Nepal-Tibet floods. AFP Published August 27, 2026 Updated August 27, 2026 09: 05am. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

Rescue teams rushed Thursday to find more than 1, 000 individuals missing on the Nepal-Tibet border in flash floods and landslides that killed at least 165 and swept away entire villages.

Notably, a terrifying clip of surveillance video from the Chinese side of the frontier demonstrates a massive wall of mud and debris crashing over a building a number of stories high on Wednesday morning, engulfing it as dozens of individuals ran for their lives below. The surge swept away buses and cars like they were toys.

Plenty of of the missing are foreign tourists, office-holders noted of the disaster. It the US Geological Survey believes was caused by a glacial collapse that sent a flow of debris engulfing areas along the way.

In practice, the tsunami-like rumble of water and mud struck villages and towns on the path of two rivers – Bhote Koshi and Trishuli, with Nepali police saying they had recovered 162 bodies.

Raju Bhadel, 56, a businessman in Nepal's Nuwakot district, recounted receiving a call from his brother-in-law in distress.

"They were crying and remarked their entire house had been swept away. Three family members were rescued, but his brother is still missing, " he remarked.

Additionally at Nuwakot, teacher Manok Mishra witnessed "nine trucks being swept away by the floods including people".

Rescuers waded through mud and sludge to look for survivors after floodwaters buried the lower floors of multi-storey buildings.

Nepal did not provide a figure for residents in affected areas who are still missing.

In practice, the foreigners out of contact included Indians, and others from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea and the United States, Nepal's tourism board remarked.

Meanwhile, the rush of mud and debris was "like an inland tsunami, travelling nearly 170 kilometres down the Bhote Koshi valley into Central Nepal", remarked environmental historian Ruth Gamble of La Trobe University.

"It is a popular route for international tourists travelling from Kathmandu to Lhasa, " she continued.

It remarked it was dispatching emergency supplies including blankets, first aid kits, stretchers and body bags.

Tibet administration office-holders mobilised almost 800 emergency workers and 150 vehicles as well as sniffer dogs and speed boats to assist the rescue efforts, China's state-run news agency Xinhua stated.

In practice, the cause of the disaster was not immediately clear in the hours after it occurred early on Wednesday, but the US Geological Survey remarked it was a glacial collapse that caused seismic activity and the "catastrophic" downstream impacts in Nepal and Tibet.

"This event was initially reported as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake, " it remarked.

"Additional analysis of nearby seismic stations, long period seismic waves, and satellite imagery led to the determination that the seismic event was instead a glacial collapse and debris flow, and that no earthquake had occurred."

Climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risks of glacial lake floods and glacial collapses.

Experts cautioned that a lingering blockage in a river could produce an extra flood.

While AFP images depicted the top floor of a house sticking out from muddy soil, images shared by Nepali police indicated floodwater surging through a river, sweeping away houses in its path.

Rasuwa, in the north of Nepal, was the first district to be affected. But deaths have been documented from seven Nepali districts in total as the flood waters raged downstream, all the way to Chitwan in the south, on the border with India.

Plenty of trekking businesses were not running tours during the monsoon season, but there remain significant numbers of travellers including pilgrims in the region.

As well as by pilgrims travelling to the base of the Mount Kailash, a holy site for Buddhists and Hindus, among sites hit by the flood was Syabrubesi, the gateway to the popular trekking areas.

While others living near the river in danger zones had been informed to relocate, the Nepali Army was carrying out flights and had rescued scores of individuals.

According to China's leader Xi Jinping, "the most urgent task is doing everything possible to search for and rescue the missing people", according to CCTV.

Traffic authorities in Tibet's Shigatse remarked roads in the area were "at risk of mudslides and unsafe for passage".

"With a blockage still lodged upstream on the Nepal-China border river, authorities warn a second flood may occur, " he informed AFP.

Taken together, the developments around search underway for 1, 000 missing after deadly Nepal point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.