The death toll from a devastating glacier-collapse mudslide in the Himalayas has risen to nearly 800, while more than 3,000 people remain missing on both sides of the Nepal-China border, authorities said on Sunday. Severe weather and rising water levels have hampered rescue efforts in Nepal and China.
The disaster struck last Wednesday when a massive flow of ice, rocks, mud and debris swept through mountain valleys and rivers, causing widespread destruction.
The Red Cross estimated that more than 90,000 people may have been affected by the disaster. China has linked the catastrophe to the effects of climate change.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by telephone with Nepal’s foreign minister on Saturday. According to state broadcaster CCTV, Wang described the mudslide as the worst cross-border disaster to affect the two countries in recent years.
“The rescue operation has become unprecedentedly difficult and complex,” Wang said.
Nepal’s disaster management authority said 781 people had died in the country and 2,502 were missing. China reported 16 deaths and 546 missing people in Gyirong County.
Beijing said 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries could not be traced in Tibet near a key border crossing with Nepal.
Nepal’s local police told Reuters that residents and rescue workers had moved to higher ground after recent rainfall raised the water level of the Trishuli River, creating fears of fresh flooding.
Rescue operations have been suspended several times since Friday because of adverse weather and fears that a lake formed by the disaster near the Nepal-China border could overflow and trigger further flooding.
Water from the lake had begun flowing into Nepal’s Lende Khola and the Trishuli River. CCTV reported that water levels in the lake, which had threatened downstream areas, had fallen significantly by Saturday evening.
Drone footage late on Saturday showed a landslide 2.8 kilometres downstream from the lake. The landslide created a new dam, where water began accumulating again.
Rescue efforts in Nepal are now focused on five hydropower projects submerged by floodwater, including the Upper Trishuli Complex. Authorities said on Friday that about 350 people could be trapped inside a tunnel at the site.
Nepal has deployed about 10,000 troops, supported by specialist rescue teams from China and India.
Nepal’s military airlifted heavy equipment to the remote area on Sunday. Rescuers reached the entrance of a tunnel and began clearing debris blocking access.
Authorities said rescue teams carrying oxygen supplies and cameras would enter the tunnel once the entrance was secured and cleared.
“This is extremely difficult because there is a huge amount of debris, and we cannot use explosions to remove it and create a passage,” said Dharam Raj Upreti, head of Nepal’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Lok Bahadur Chhetri, spokesperson for Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the country needed international assistance in specialised areas, including tunnel rescue operations, DNA testing, refrigerated facilities for storing bodies and forensic examinations to identify decomposed remains.
Nepalese authorities have begun mass burials of hundreds of unidentified bodies after relatives spent days searching hospitals, morgues and relief centres for loved ones. The bodies had begun decomposing.
Hundreds of graves have been dug in a forest in Devghat, Chitwan District, about 200 kilometres from the disaster zone. Bodies washed away by floodwaters from the affected Rasuwa region are being buried there.
“We had no other option,” said Ganesh Aryal, Chitwan’s chief district officer. “Our main concern was the public health risk created by the rapid decomposition of the bodies.”
Authorities buried 96 unidentified bodies on Saturday and planned to bury more than 100 additional bodies on Sunday. Recovery teams continued to retrieve bodies from rivers and debris. DNA samples have been collected and burial locations carefully documented so that families may identify the remains of relatives in the future.
“More than half of the bodies we have recovered so far are not in a condition to be identified,” Nepal police officer Anil Thapa told Reuters. “Many faces are not visible. In some cases, only hands or legs have been found, while in others only parts of bodies have been recovered,” Thapa said.