By Gopal Sharma, Sahana Bajracharya and Navesh Chitrakar
TRISHULI, Nepal/BEIJING, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Rescuers in Nepal used helicopters on Thursday to scour for hundreds still missing after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a river on the Himalayan border with China’s Tibet, sending catastrophic floods through towns and valleys, killing 162.
More than 400 foreigners were among 579 tourists missing, Nepal tourism officials said, after the disaster swept a region thronged by trekkers and pilgrims, while police said they expected the death toll to rise beyond 162.
“This will go up, as we have resumed the search and more bodies are expected to be recovered,” police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told Reuters.
Among the missing tourists, 47 were from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 24 from Canada, Sunil Sharma, a spokesperson for Nepal’s tourism board, told the Associated Press news agency.
The tally of missing in the mudslide disaster in Tibet’s Gyirong county was 558, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Thursday, including 260 foreign nationals, but it was not immediately clear if the two nations’ figures overlapped.
Verified videos showed crushing masses of water and debris sweeping away dozens of people at a border crossing in Gyirong, with homes, roads and power projects washed away further 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 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.
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 U.S. Geological Survey said an earthquake with magnitude initially reported as 4.4 was in fact seismic energy generated by the collapse of glacial rock and ice, followed by debris flow.
Many of the victims were making a pilgrimage 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, also held sacred in various religions.
The U.S. 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”.
U.N. teams and partners were sending supplies and personnel to support affected Nepali communities, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
China’s state broadcaster tallied three deaths and 265 missing in Gyirong, but added the toll was still being verified amid the rescue effort.
Thirty-four Australians were among the missing, said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“Nepal … is a developing country,” he said. “It doesn’t have the resources that an event like that would have in Australia, so information is difficult.”
South Korea said eight nationals working on a hydropower plant were missing, with Malaysia and Japan also reporting some missing nationals.
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 destroyed buildings and vehicles that 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.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma, Sahana Bajracharya, Aftab Ahmed, Liz Lee, Yukun Zhang, Xiuhao Chen, Shi Bu, Sakshi Dayal, Kanjyik Ghosh, and Jatindra Dash; Editing by Stephen Coates and Clarence Fernandez)
