Nepal-Tibet Floods and Landslides Kill More Than 270; Hundreds Missing

More than 270 people have been killed in sudden severe floods and landslides in Nepal and Tibet, while hundreds, including foreign tourists and Nepalese security personnel, remain missing. Nepal has reported 270 deaths, while three people have died in Tibet, according to separate reports by the BBC and China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

A flash flood struck three districts of Nepal on Wednesday morning local time after an ice avalanche blocked the flow of the Lhende River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi River. Nepal Police said in a social media post that the death toll had exceeded 270, adding that 270 bodies had been recovered so far.

The flood first hit Timure near Rasuwagadhi in Nepal’s border district of Rasuwa, close to China. Hundreds of people lived in the area, and a large part of the settlement was swept away before floodwaters rapidly surged downstream.

No rainfall was reported in the area at the time, leaving residents without any warning. Rasuwa’s chief customs officer, Rajendra Dhungana, said he initially thought an earthquake had struck when he felt the ground shake on Wednesday morning.

Dhungana said he saw a massive wall of water descending from upstream after going outside. “There was something like smoke with the water, and it was moving rapidly towards Timure Bazaar,” he said.

Dhungana said floodwaters rose to about 100 metres and swept over the market like waves, erasing the entire bazaar within moments. Dhungana and several dozen others took shelter in a nearby forest after realising the scale of the disaster.

More than 300 cars and trucks waiting at the Rasuwagadhi customs checkpoint were also washed away, according to the report.

A statement from the Nepal Prime Minister’s Office said the missing included 391 foreign nationals and 44 members of the security forces. The total number of missing people is in the hundreds.

Security officials and disaster experts believe the scale of the missing could make Wednesday’s flood one of the deadliest disasters in Nepal’s modern history. Concerns have been raised that it could surpass the devastating 1993 floods in Sarlahi, Rautahat and Makwanpur, which killed around 1,400 people and have long been regarded among Nepal’s worst disasters.

Rabindra Nepal, chairman of Ward No. 7 of Bidur Municipality in Nuwakot, said hundreds of homes had been completely destroyed between Sole and Akkare Bazaar. Some residents managed to escape, but many elderly people and children remained missing, he said.

Nepal said he had been stranded at the municipal building since early Wednesday, with no roads or bridges remaining for him to return home.

Authorities said the lack of adequate information about the flash flood was a major reason for the high casualties and property losses. Officials at the Rasuwa District Administration Office said the flood originated in Tibet, but they had received no prior information about it.

In southwestern Tibet’s Xizang Autonomous Region, a landslide at a port on the China-Nepal border had killed three people and left 558 missing as of 8am local time on Thursday, according to a local official. Two local residents were rescued alive.

Officials from Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and China’s meteorological administration held a virtual meeting on Wednesday afternoon following the extensive damage. China agreed to promptly inform Nepal if water flow began rising on the Chinese side of the border.

Nepal and China already have an agreement on disaster risk reduction and mutual cooperation during emergencies.