Kathmandu, Nepal: Catastrophic floods on the China-Nepal border have killed at least 1,252 people in Nepal, the disaster authority said Thursday, taking overall deaths to more than 1,270.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 21 people were killed in Tibet, bringing the total toll from the disaster that struck on August 26 to 1,273.
The number of missing in Nepal remained 4,216, as rescue operations continued on a war-footing.
In China, state media say there are 541 people missing, taking the overall number to 4,757.
Nearly 600 foreigners from over 30 nationalities are also missing, with Indians making up one of the largest proportions.
Some 75 Americans are also unaccounted for, according to the State Department on Wednesday.
In Kathmandu, desperate families of some of the missing foreigners said they were combing hospitals and morgues for any information about their loved ones.
“I feel desperate, it’s been so many days,” said 53-year-old American Sanjeev Rai who flew to Nepal after learning that his wife was untraceable.
The floods, which tore through mountain districts, have destroyed roads, bridges and other infrastructure, hampering relief efforts.
Aid agencies said they were considering deploying porters to deliver aid to hard-hit districts close to the border with China.
“We’ve been discussing with the government how also to use helicopters, cargo drones to be able to deliver aid,” Lila Pieters Yahia, the UN resident coordinator for Nepal, told reporters in Kathmandu.
“The beauty of your country (is) you have porters. So we have to go back into also those very simple means to bring the aid as soon as possible.”
Long considered the backbone of trekking and mountaineering expeditions in Nepal, porters are known to carry heavy loads for days across steep trails in tough conditions.
Nepali army personnel and rescue teams, including foreign experts, meanwhile continued to search Thursday for survivors feared trapped inside several hydropower tunnels.
The work is ongoing using excavators and other heavy equipment to look for any survivors in the tunnels, the army said.
