Nepal-China Border Mudslides Kill Over 670; 3,000 Missing

The death toll from powerful floods and mudslides near the Nepal-China border has climbed to at least 676, while severe weather continues to slow rescue and recovery efforts.

Nepali officials revised their casualty figures Saturday, bringing the combined toll across Nepal and Tibet to 676 dead and nearly 3,000 missing, according to The Associated Press. Authorities in China have reported seven fatalities and more than 550 people missing. Nepal’s disaster agency said 669 people have died there, with 2,426 others still unaccounted for.

Experts say Wednesday’s flash floods and mudslides across Nepal and China’s Tibet region were likely triggered when a large section of ice broke from a glacier and crashed into the Lhende Khola River. In the main disaster zone, rescue crews have been hampered by washed-out roads, limited communications and difficult terrain. Conditions are expected to remain challenging, with intermittent rain forecast through the weekend.

“Search and rescue operations have been temporarily halted because it is raining, and the weather is foggy,” Narendra Pariyar, a senior official in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, told Reuters.

MORE THAN 3,000 MISSING AFTER COLOMBIA EARTHQUAKE AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROVIDES $15.5 MILLION IN RELIEF

Nepalese officials have said they do not need foreign teams for general search-and-rescue work, but they have asked China to send tunnel specialists. As many as 100 people are believed to remain trapped inside a mud-filled tunnel at a hydropower plant.

“We have already made requests for such specialised services and technical assistance in areas where we don’t have enough expertise and technical know-how,” Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told Reuters.

China dispatched five such workers from Tibet by helicopter to assist, according to the country’s state-affiliated Xinhua news agency.

Dramatic video showed the rescue of one such person as authorities from Nepal worked to drag the man out of the mud deluge.

Though impending rainstorms are likely to make rescue operations more difficult, officials say a previous threat from a lake that had formed on the border between Nepal and Tibet has substantially subsided.

The lake had been overflowing into the Lhende Khola River, risking further flooding, but that risk had gone down by Saturday, according to Chinese officials.

Nepal’s finance minister Swarnim Wagle estimated the country will need over $4 billion to rebuild after the disaster.

“This is just an estimate. Loss and damage is being assessed,” he told Reuters.