At least 469 people have been killed and about 1,500 remain missing after sudden floods and landslides in Nepal, according to Nepali authorities. Rescue teams and military helicopters are continuing searches for missing people in remote mountainous areas along the Nepal-China border, NDTV reported.
Nepali authorities said 1,468 people remain missing, including many foreign tourists. Indian citizens make up the largest group of missing foreign nationals.
Nepal’s tourism board said 178 Nepali citizens are still missing, while 11 Indian nationals have been rescued. The missing include foreign tourists trekking in the Himalayas and numerous Hindu pilgrims travelling to the sacred snow-covered Mount Kailash in Tibet.
A further major threat has emerged upstream amid the flood situation in Nepal. China has issued a Level-4 disaster alert in the Tibet region along the Nepal-China border.
Chinese authorities said a natural reservoir, or “barrier lake”, formed at the confluence of two rivers after a landslide last Wednesday. The reservoir could trigger flash floods across extensive downstream areas if it bursts under pressure from excess water.
China’s Ministry of Water Resources issued an emergency warning for the Tibet Autonomous Region. The ministry said the reservoir formed near the confluence of the Chhotechen Khola and Perepu Sangpo rivers.
Both rivers originate in Tibet before entering Nepal and becoming part of the Bhote Koshi river system.
China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that the natural reservoir had accumulated an estimated 2 million cubic metres of water by Thursday morning. Continued rainfall could increase water inflow to nearly 3 million cubic metres, raising the risk of a breach.
A collapse of the reservoir could send a powerful surge of water downstream, threatening further widespread damage in low-lying areas, including Gyirong Port on the China-Nepal border.
China’s natural disaster response system has four warning levels, with Level 1 being the highest and Level 4 the lowest.
Earlier this week, following a glacial collapse in mountainous areas along the Nepal-China border, massive torrents of water and mud as high as multi-storey buildings swept through the area, submerging many settlements.
Videos from the disaster showed people running for their lives before floodwaters advanced rapidly and engulfed homes and other structures. Many buildings and bridges were washed away by the force of the water.