At Least 165 Dead as Flash Floods Sweep Nepal-Tibet Border, More Than 1,300 Missing.

At Least 165 Dead as Flash Floods Sweep Nepal-Tibet Border, More Than 1,300 Missing.

Rescuers are searching through mud and debris along the Nepal-China border after a glacial collapse unleashed a torrent that swept through communities, destroyed roads and bridges and left more than 1,300 people unaccounted for.

At least 165 people have been killed after catastrophic flash floods tore through parts of Nepal near the Chinese border, while more than 1,300 people remain missing across Nepal and Tibet.

The floods struck on Wednesday after part of a glacier collapsed in the Himalayas, sending a massive surge of water, mud and rock down the Lhende Khola river system and into communities in Nepal's Rasuwa district.

Nepalese authorities said 826 people were missing on the Nepalese side, while Chinese authorities reported 558 people missing in Tibet. China has confirmed three deaths on its side of the border.

The scale of the destruction became clearer as rescue teams reached affected areas.

Entire sections of communities were swept away, while at least 19 bridges and about 40 kilometres of roads in Nepal were destroyed. The flooding also damaged infrastructure along a major route connecting Kathmandu with Tibet.

The disaster has also left hundreds of foreign nationals unaccounted for.

Nepalese authorities said almost 500 foreigners were among the 826 people missing in Nepal, with people from more than two dozen countries on the list. Those reported missing include nationals of India, the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada.

Many of the missing were travelling through the region as tourists or pilgrims.

The route affected by the flooding is used by people travelling towards Mount Kailash, a sacred site in Tibet revered by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and followers of the Tibetan Bon tradition. More than 100 people believed to have been travelling on pilgrimage to the mountain are among those missing.

For rescuers, reaching them has become a race against time.

More than 5,000 soldiers and police officers have been involved in search and rescue operations in Nepal, with helicopters and drones being used to reach areas cut off by damaged roads and swollen rivers. Chinese authorities are conducting their own operations across the border.

The force of the flooding left little time for people to escape.

Survivors described walls of mud and water rushing into homes and carrying away buildings, vehicles and people. One survivor told Reuters that he tried to save his wife as the flood entered their home, only to watch her disappear beneath the mud.

The cause of the disaster was initially unclear, with early reports suggesting an earthquake may have triggered the destruction.

But satellite imagery and seismic data have since pointed to a glacial collapse, rather than an earthquake, as the trigger. A section of ice and rock collapsed high in the Himalayas, sending enormous quantities of water and debris into the river system below.

The disaster has also renewed attention on the instability of the Himalayan environment. Scientists have warned that rising temperatures are accelerating glacier loss across the Hindu Kush Himalaya, potentially increasing the risk of sudden glacial collapses, landslides and floods. The Lhende Khola river system had already experienced another major flood less than 14 months ago.

For now, however, the immediate concern is not the wider climate debate; it is the people still missing.

Families are waiting for news of relatives. Rescue teams are moving through devastated communities, while authorities continue to search river valleys and areas buried beneath mud and debris.

With more than 1,300 people still unaccounted for, the final scale of the disaster is not yet known.

What began with a collapse high in the Himalayas has now become a humanitarian emergency stretching across the Nepal-China border, with rescuers still searching for those who may have survived the flood.