Tragedy unfolds as rescuers scour Nepal flood debris

Tragedy unfolded across the Himalayan border region on Friday as rescuers scoured thick mud and flood debris left behind by a catastrophic glacial collapse, with the overall death toll reaching 584 and almost 2,500 people are still missing.

Nepalese police reported at least 579 deaths, while Chinese state media confirmed five deaths on the Tibet side, as of 10:00pm on Friday.

Hundreds of foreign trekkers and pilgrims remain unaccounted for after a tsunami-like wall of water swept away entire mountain villages on Wednesday.

Nepal and China resumed rescue operations that had been suspended briefly in the flood-hit Himalayas on Friday after risks from an overflowing lake were found to be manageable, easing fears of fresh devastation.

Indians make up the largest number of missing foreigners, while the United States said 90 of its citizens were out of contact.

Overflow sparks fresh panic

On Friday, the lake’s reservoir had topped 2.5 million cubic metres (90 million cubic feet) of water, up from the estimated 1.5-2 million cubic metres (50-70 million cubic feet) recorded a day earlier, before overflowing into the Lhende Khola river and then into the Trishuli, authorities and witnesses in Nepal said.

The overflow sparked panic and warnings from authorities in Nepal, leading to rescue operations being suspended for about three hours. The risk of the lake bursting had prompted all Chinese rescue personnel and vehicles to withdraw on the Chinese side as well and stand by in a safe area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Both resumed rescue operations after the threat eased.

“By noon, as the risk posed by the upstream dammed lake was deemed manageable, rescue operations for the Gyirong mudslide disaster quickly resumed and were stepped up,” Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

Nepal’s army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told Reuters that rescue operations had been temporarily halted after the flood alert but it was found that the rise in the water level was only by about 2 feet (0.6m).

Nepal appeals for aid, declines foreign rescue help

Nepal appealed Friday for international financial assistance, but said it was coping without foreign rescue teams.

“It is not that we will not need help, but our security network is capable and working effectively right now,” foreign ministry spokesman Lok Bahadur Chhetri told AFP. “If Nepal needs any specialised help or expertise, then we will request it.”

"The offer for help is natural. Our security agencies are doing the search-and-rescue operation. For now we don’t require such help," Lok Bahadur said on Friday.

The Kathmandu Post reported that India, China, the United States, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had asked the government to allow their search-and-rescue teams to assist in the operation.

China offers to aid Nepal

Chinese President Xi Jinping offered Beijing’s help in Nepal’s rescue operations on Friday, state media said, after deadly flooding at their shared border.

“China is willing to actively assist Nepal in its rescue efforts and provide support and aid to the best of its ability,” Xi said in a condolence message to Nepal’s president, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
In Beijing, China’s Politburo met on Friday to direct rescue work, state media reported.

Authorities must “scientifically formulate search-and-rescue plans, make every effort to search for missing people from China and abroad,” the meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The meeting called for stronger monitoring of glacier lakes, landslide risks and barrier lakes, emergency aid to affected areas in Nepal, and closer international disaster cooperation.

Sri Lanka extends $1m, EU $2.3m in aid

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka directed the government to provide $1 million in humanitarian assistance to support Nepal’s ongoing humanitarian and relief efforts, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism on Thursday.

The European Union (EU) on Friday promised two million euros ($2.3m) in aid for Nepal.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X that the “immediate humanitarian aid” would help “deliver life-saving assistance to families and communities hit hardest.”

‘All of our people are gone’

Earlier, Nepalese rescue teams used helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands cut off in towns and valleys, while emergency services – some using sniffer dogs – recovered dozens of bodies swept down into the plains.

Dibga Tamang was among the last people rescued from Rasuwa on Thursday, airlifted along with three others to an army camp in Nuwakot.

“All of our people have gone. They are dead,” Tamang said. “I have no one left waiting for me. Everything and everyone is gone. The end.”

Sivaranjani Muthunathan was travelling in Nepal by bus with 56 others from India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu. They were heading towards the Chinese border when they became stuck in what they thought was a traffic jam.

“Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us,” Muthunathan, 46, told AFP, showing a video she recorded on her phone of a torrent surging towards her.

Vehicles were swept away or buried under mud around them.

“One by one, we also climbed out through the driver’s side,” she said, recounting how she had then scrambled up a hill.

Flood directly affects over 90,000 

More than 90,000 people are estimated to be directly affected by the Himalayan landslide and in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the Red Cross said on Friday, as aid officials voiced fears of further flooding.

“We believe that at least 93,000 people have been affected and are in great need,” David Fisher, head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Nepal, told a Geneva press briefing.

“We’re of course very concerned about the secondary flood,” he added.

The Red Cross also launched an emergency appeal for $31 million Thursday to respond to the devastating flash floods and landslides that struck the Nepal-Tibet border.

India recovers seven bodies

Indian authorities recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal in the Maharajganj and Kushinagar districts of Uttar Pradesh state, which borders Nepal’s southern flood-hit Chitwan region, officials said Friday.

“Four unidentified bodies were recovered in the district on Thursday,” Maharajganj district Magistrate Gaurav Singh Sogarwal told AFP.

“We think they have been swept into India from Nepal following flash floods there.”