Nepal Flash Floods Leave Hundreds of Tourists Missing, Including 12 Britons

Hundreds of tourists and trekkers, among them 12 Britons, have been reported missing after powerful floods and mudslides tore through communities along the Nepal-Tibet border, destroying buildings, roads and bridges.

In Nepal, homes and transport routes were washed away, while authorities in China-controlled Tibet warned they feared “major casualties” after people went missing in Gyirong county, where a mudslide struck a key land crossing between the two neighbours this morning.

Dramatic video from Nepal’s mountainous Rasuwa region showed a surging wall of floodwater roaring through a town, engulfing structures and sweeping debris through the valley.

Across the border in Tibet, footage captured the Chinese-owned Gyirong Port land crossing being overwhelmed. Dozens of people could be seen sprinting to safety moments before a torrent of mud and water smashed into the site and obliterated it.

At least 17 people have been confirmed dead after the torrent rushed down the valley along the Bhote Koshi River, following landslides that officials believe may have been triggered by an earthquake.

Nepali authorities said up to 384 tourists and trekkers remain unaccounted for, including 291 foreign nationals and 93 Nepali citizens.

Those listed as missing include 12 people from the UK, 105 Indian nationals, four South Africans, 17 Malaysians and three Americans. One Australian and one Dutch national are also unaccounted for.

South Korea said eight of its citizens were missing, with a further 12 stranded in the aftermath of the deadly flooding.

The nationalities of nearly 100 more people has not yet been established, while an additional 37 people are believed to be non-resident Indians living in Nepal. 

Search operations are under way on both sides of the border between Tibet and Nepal.  

The Nepal Army said 14 helicopters and disaster response teams have been deployed for rescue and relief. 

But officials said the waters were too high for helicopters to land in Nepal’s affected areas of Syapru Besi and Timure in the mountainous district of Rasuwa, with a population of about 50,000. 

Nepal’s rescue helicopters would be unable to land in the affected areas until the waters recede, however, army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said. 

‘There could be heavy casualties or loss of property,’ district administrator Narendra Pariyar told Reuters. 

‘But I cannot say for sure now.’ Pariyar urged those living on the banks of the Bhote Koshi river in the area to seek higher ground, pointing to reports that nearby villages and infrastructure project sites were washed away.

‘It all came suddenly,’ the Onlinekhabar portal quoted a witness from the area as saying. ‘We heard a loud sound, like a volcano erupting. People started to scream and ran away.’

Around 60 houses in the Trishuli Bazaar area were swept away, while the nearby Devighat was also badly affected. Two bridges over the nearby Trishuli River were also washed away. 

Nepali media reported that 60 employees of an under-construction hydropower project are missing following the floods. 

Staff working at the Langtang Khola Hydroelectric Project in Rasuwa have not been accounted for. 

Local media reported that workers were ‘carrying out concrete construction work inside a tunnel’, adding: ‘The flood caused severe damage to the project.’

Rasuwa is home to several hydropower plants. Nepal’s energy ministry said 430 MW of electricity supplies were affected, mostly from hydroelectric projects, or more than 12% of total national hydropower capacity of 3.2 GW, a Reuters calculation showed. 

The mudslide on the Nepali side hit China’s Gyirong port, cutting off roads, communications and power in the Shigatse region near the border with Nepal. 

One Chinese businessman told the BBC that his logistics firm has seven container trucks in the area of the flash flood, which are all staffed by Nepalese employees. 

Yee Liang told the broadcaster: ‘We have lost contact with all of them. There is no signal, so we cannot reach anyone.’

He said that, as far as he’s aware, there was no warning prior to the disaster: ‘There were occasional mudslides and landslides, especially in the rainy season, but this one seems much more serious.’

President Xi Jinping urged ‘all-out’ search efforts for the missing as well as stronger monitoring and early warning systems to prevent secondary disasters.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah said police and military were joining rescue and relief teams.

‘Instructions have been given … to move the people living in the lower areas to safer places,’ he said. ‘People along the river are advised to exercise extra caution and remain alert.’ 

The Red Cross said this morning that it had activated emergency response teams, mobilised volunteers and was deploying an emergency team with relief supplies in response to the natural disaster. 

The Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi River, witnessed maximum flooding on Wednesday, experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development said.

‘The Lhende Khola has flooded twice in fourteen months, this time triggered by an ice rock avalanche from a glacier on the Nepal side that blocked the river and released a sudden surge downstream,’ said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at the climate research group.

‘In a warming Himalaya, early warning is the first line of adaptation,’ he added.

From its origins in Tibet, the Bhote Koshi river empties into Nepal’s Trishuli river that eventually flows into India as the Gandak river.

A deadly flash flood on the same river last year was eventually traced to the draining of a glacier lake. 

Last year’s Bhote Koshi flood killed nine people, with 24 missing, as it washed away a ‘Friendship Bridge’ linking Nepal and China to disrupt trade and transport for months.

That flood was triggered by the draining of a supraglacial lake in Tibet. 

The Himalayan region, which crosses Nepal and several nearby countries including India, is especially vulnerable to heavy rains, floods and landslides because the area is warming up faster than the rest of the world due to human-caused climate change. 

Research has shown that extreme weather events including heat waves, heavy rains and melting glaciers have become more frequent in the region.

Researchers at the Kathmandu research group found earlier this year that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region are melting at an accelerating rate, with ice loss rates doubling since 2000 primarily due to rising global temperatures and climate change.

Our News Outlet has contacted the UK’s foreign office for comment.