Nepal-Tibet Flood Toll Hits 750, 3,044 Missing

China identified 261 missing foreigners from 23 countries as the Himalayan flood death toll rose.

Four days after a glacier collapse on Nepal's Lirung Peak unleashed a torrent of ice, rock, mud and debris down Himalayan rivers, the combined death toll in Nepal and Tibet has reached 750, with 3,044 people still missing, according to The Straits Times. Nepal's disaster authority says 734 people died on its side, 2,498 are missing and 7,514 have been rescued. Chinese officials raised the Tibet death toll from seven to 16, with 546 missing in Gyirong County, CNA reports. Rescuers moved to higher ground after rain swelled the Trishuli River.

The scale of the foreign toll was only revealed on Sunday, when Chinese officials gave their first nationality breakdown: 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries are missing on the Tibetan side of the Gyirong border crossing. Among them are 104 Nepalis, 49 Indians, 33 Latvians, 18 Americans and 15 Britons — figures reported by CNA and The Straits Times. A disaster at a remote border crossing killing or trapping hundreds of international trekkers, pilgrims to Mount Kailash and workers was largely invisible to the outside world until now.

Chinese scientists concluded that at approximately 10:52am Beijing time on August 26, a glacier on the southern slope of Lirung Peak in Nepal fractured, triggering an ice-rock avalanche that reached the Gyirong crossing in six to seven minutes, per CNA. Surveillance footage showed torrents of debris engulfing buildings. Experts quoted by CNA explain the vast gap between dead and missing: landslide specialist Colin Stark of National Taiwan University says debris likely buried many victims while floodwaters swept casualties kilometres downstream, so most listed as missing may ultimately be fatalities, though some bodies may never be located.

The Red Cross estimates more than 90,000 people have been affected, and the disaster's path runs through an area packed with hydropower infrastructure — Nepal's disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to the missing list, The Japan Times reports. More than 100 workers may still be alive inside tunnels at the Trishuli 3A and 3B plants, where Nepali army crews broke through late Saturday, inserting a pipe and pumping air to workers believed trapped. Nepal says it needs foreign help specifically for tunnel rescue, DNA testing and forensic identification.

Rescue work has been suspended repeatedly since August 28 due to bad weather and flood fears. A lake formed across the Nepal-China border by the mudslide largely drained by Saturday evening, but The Straits Times reports drones detected a new landslide 2.8km downstream forming a fresh dam and pool of water, prompting officials to relocate rescue personnel near the Gyirong crossing. Rising Trishuli River levels after fresh rain forced residents and rescue workers to higher ground, underscoring that the disaster zone remains unstable.

China has mobilised over 2,100 rescue workers, allocated at least 220 million yuan (about S$41.7 million), and sent tents, blankets, rations, medical supplies, satellite and hydrological data, and tunnel rescue experts to Nepal, The Straits Times and CNA report. The first Chinese relief batch reached Kathmandu with four tunnel experts, CNA says. Chinese authorities say no foreign tourists remain stranded in Gyirong County after verification sweeps, and Beijing has notified the embassies of the 23 affected countries. Foreign Minister Wang Yi called it the two countries' most severe cross-border disaster in recent years.