\n<\/p>\n
Nearly 1,500 people including at least 800 foreigners are missing across Nepal and China\u2019s Tibet, authorities said on Thursday, after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river, \u200bsending catastrophic floods through towns and valleys.<\/strong><\/p>\n Rescuers in Nepal used helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands cut off after Wednesday\u2019s disaster swept a rugged \u200cmountainous region thronged by trekkers and pilgrims linking Lhasa in Tibet with the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu. Police said they expected the death toll to rise beyond 165.<\/p>\n Almost 600 foreigners were among 826 people missing in Nepal, police and tourism officials said.<\/p>\n Among the missing tourists from more than two dozen countries, 177 were from India, 63 were from the United States, \u200b34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada.<\/p>\n The tally of missing in Tibet\u2019s Gyirong county was 558, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Thursday, including 260 foreign nationals.<\/p>\n Verified videos showed crushing \u200bmasses 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 \u2060in Nepal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us,\u201d said Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor being treated in hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cAs it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher. When I saw it \u200benter our home, I tried to grab my wife\u2019s hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud.\u201d<\/p>\n A helicopter ferried him to safety four hours later. \u201cMy wife is still somewhere beneath \u200bthe mud,\u201d he added. \u201cShe\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Another survivor said he saved himself by clinging to a mango tree as he watched the house where he had been working disappear.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s army. More than 5,000 army and police rescue personnel were mobilised to look for survivors and find bodies.<\/p>\n Early reports from Nepali officials suggested an earthquake in the area \u200bcould have caused the lower part of a glacier to collapse and trigger the floods.<\/p>\n 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 \u200bglacial rock and ice, followed by debris flow.<\/p>\n Chinese authorities have identified risks from a still-dammed lake located in Gyirong, upstream from the mudslide and flood-stricken Tibet-Nepal border crossing that could significantly complicate rescue efforts in the mountainous site, CCTV reported \u200con Thursday.<\/p>\n Many of \u2060the victims were making a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar, a high-altitude site in Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists among others.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The U.S. State Department said it was sending a disaster response adviser and providing assistance of $500,000<\/p>\n Canada was also closely following the situation, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on X, describing the floods as \u201cabsolutely devastating\u201d.<\/p>\n U.N. teams and partners were sending supplies and personnel to support affected Nepali communities, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.<\/p>\n Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said details on the disaster were scant.<\/p>\n \u201cNepal \u2026 is a developing country,\u201d he \u200bsaid. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have the resources that an event like \u200bthat would have in Australia, so information is \u2060difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n Sagar Pandey, the chief executive of a Himalayan tourism operator, said 15 Indian-Australians on a pilgrimage tour with the company were missing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no human-made things, no human settlement left. Everything is just flat,\u201d he told Reuters after flying over the zone in a helicopter. \u201cSo anyone in the hotel, the restaurant, or the car, I \u200bbelieve that everybody is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Security footage captured on the Chinese side of the border showed many people fleeing from a \u200btorrent of rock, mud and \u2060water that destroyed buildings and vehicles.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In the affected areas, layers of mud metres thick swathed homes, trees and vehicles. Helicopters ferrying survivors hovered overhead all day. Television images showed collapsed \u200bhomes, floating cars and a metal bridge being washed away, while witnesses said the waters engulfed entire villages.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is devastation everywhere we look,\u201d said Tula Bahadur BK, a health worker in Rasuwa.<\/p>\n \u201cThe settlements next to the river have been completely swept away. Five of my \u200bown relatives are missing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nEMERGENCY DELIVERIES BEGIN<\/strong><\/h2>\n
VIDEOS SHOW PEOPLE SWEPT AWAY WHILE FLEEING<\/strong><\/h2>\n
An initial study of Planet Labs satellite imagery showed a landslide of ice and rock unleashed a flood carrying debris in \u2060the Lhende River, \u200b<\/p>\n