Nepal flood death toll hits 270 as hundreds still missing

• Nearly 1,500 people remain missing across Nepal and Tibet.
• At least 288 Indians are missing in Nepal, says India.
• More than 5,000 personnel join Nepal's rescue operation.

TRISHULI, Nepal: Nepal police said on Thursday that at least 270 bodies had been recovered after catastrophic flash floods swept through Himalayan border regions of Nepal and China's Tibet.

Nearly 1,500 people, including more than 700 foreigners, are reported missing across Nepal and China's Tibet, with rescuers continuing to search for survivors and bodies.

At least 288 Indian nationals are missing in Nepal and another 200 remain stranded in China after the torrential floods swept through the Himalayan border areas, India's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The 288 missing Indians include tourists and Indian nationals working in Nepal, the ministry said.

The death toll is expected to rise further as rescuers scour flood-ravaged towns and valleys cut off by Wednesday's disaster, triggered when a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river.

Rescuers in Nepal are using helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands stranded after the floods swept through a route linking Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet that is popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

Almost 500 foreigners were among 826 people reported missing in Nepal, police and tourism officials said.

Among the missing tourists from more than two dozen countries, 177 were from India, 63 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada.

Malaysia's foreign ministry said 55 nationals were uncontactable, though there was no official confirmation of casualties.

The tally of missing in Tibet's Gyirong county was 558, including 260 foreign nationals, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. China said the death toll remained at three.

Verified videos showed crushing masses of water and debris sweeping away dozens of people at a border crossing in Gyirong, while homes, roads and power projects were washed away downstream in Nepal.

"It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us," said Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor being treated in a Nepali hospital.

"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."

A helicopter ferried him to safety four hours later.

"My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud," he added. "She's gone."

Another survivor said he saved himself by clinging to a mango tree as he watched the house where he had been working disappear.

Emergency deliveries begin

In the hardest-hit districts, helicopters are dropping tents, food and other emergency supplies provided by neighbouring India, said Raja Ram Basnet, a spokesperson for Nepal's army.

More than 5,000 army and police rescue personnel joined the rescue effort that retrieved 125 people on Thursday, including 20 foreigners, he said.

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah left by road to assess the flood situation in one of the worst-affected districts of Nuwakot, his office said on social media.

Early reports from Nepali officials suggested an earthquake in the area could have caused the lower part of a glacier to collapse and trigger the floods.

The US Geological Survey said an earthquake initially reported at magnitude 4.4 was in fact seismic energy generated by the collapse of glacial rock and ice, followed by debris flow.

Chinese authorities have identified risks from a still-dammed lake in Gyirong, upstream from the mudslide and flood-stricken Tibet-Nepal border crossing that could complicate rescue efforts, particularly as rains are forecast, CCTV said.

Last July, the rapid drainage of a lake atop the Purepa glacier in Tibet unleashed deadly flooding in Nepal.

Many of this week's victims were pilgrims heading to Kailash Mansarovar, a high-altitude site in Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists, among others.

Mount Kailash, which Hindus believe to be the abode of Lord Shiva, lies on the banks of Lake Mansarovar and is also held sacred by many.

Sagar Pandey, the chief executive of a Himalayan tourism operator, said 15 Indian-Australians on a pilgrimage tour with the company were missing.

"There are no human-made things, no human settlement left. Everything is just flat," he told Reuters after flying over the zone in a helicopter.

"So anyone in the hotel, the restaurant, or the car, I believe that everybody is gone."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said details on the disaster were scant.

"Nepal is a developing country. It doesn't have the resources that an event like that would have in Australia, so information is difficult," he said.

The US State Department said it was sending a disaster response adviser and providing assistance of $500,000.

Canada was also closely following the situation, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on X, describing the floods as "absolutely devastating".

UN teams and partners were sending supplies and personnel to support affected Nepali communities, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

Videos show people swept away while fleeing

Security footage captured on the Chinese side of the border showed many people fleeing from a torrent of rock, mud and water that destroyed buildings and vehicles and killed many.

People seeking information about family members missing from the affected areas of Nuwakot and Dhading gathered outside a Nepali army training centre that was the base for helicopter rescue operations, the images showed.

Police at the gates took down the names of the missing using flashlights on mobile telephones left as the only source of light after power was cut off by damage to hydropower plants.

In the affected areas, layers of mud swathed homes, trees and vehicles. Helicopters ferrying survivors hovered overhead all day.

An initial study of Planet Labs satellite imagery showed a landslide of ice and rock unleashed a flood carrying debris in the Lhende River, about 20 km (12 miles) northeast of the Nepal-China Rasuwagadhi border crossing, Nepal disaster management officials said on X.

Television images showed collapsed homes, floating cars and a metal bridge being washed away, while witnesses said the waters engulfed entire villages.

"There is devastation everywhere we look," said Tula Bahadur BK, a health worker in Rasuwa.

"The settlements next to the river have been completely swept away. Five of my own relatives are missing."

China's official Xinhua news agency said the mudslide hit the Gyirong port, cutting roads, communications and power links in the border region of Shigatse.

A rescuer told state broadcaster CCTV of fruitless attempts to make contact with the Gyirong border port, saying, "So far there haven't been any results."

A drone inspection showed all roads to the border crossing were "completely destroyed", the rescuer added in an interview.