Kathmandu: Devastating floods near the border with China killed at least 750 people in Nepal and 2,498 remain missing, its disaster authority said Sunday, as rescue efforts entered a fifth day.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 dead in Tibet and 546 people missing following Wednesday’s disaster. That takes the overall toll to 750 dead and 3,044 missing.
Rescuers in Nepal and China battled Sunday through leg-sucking mud and the threat of rising floodwaters to find thousands missing after a deadly wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayas, engulfing entire villages. Latest figures from both countries put the number of missing at 3,044, with a further 750 confirmed deaths — and reports of some bodies possibly swept downstream as far away as India.
The disaster, which struck the China-Nepal border Wednesday morning, was caused by a glacial collapse, sending a wall of water and debris downstream, the US Geological Survey said.
Nepali army troops and engineers were working on Sunday to rescue workers believed trapped in a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site after they successfully inserted a pipe into the passage.
They have “started sending air through the small opening”, Nepali Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement. But efforts were hampered on Sunday by rains and rising river waters, with Nepal’s disaster authorities urging rescue teams to “exercise caution”.
In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal’s disaster authority listed 933 hydropower workers among the missing.
