Nepal flash flood live updates: more than 1,000 people missing after glacial collapse at Tibet border

A nurse said his relatives were “swept away” by the devastating flash floods in Nepal, as he launched a fundraiser to support those affected by the disaster.

Rajendra Pudasaini, president of the Non-Resident Nepali Association UK, said Nepal was witnessing an “irreplaceable loss”, adding that the country was “paying the price for global warming”.

The nurse, who works at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, told the Press Association: “My wife’s auntie and uncle, and their granddaughter and her husband are missing, and my godson as well.

“They’re gone. The speed the water came, they couldn’t be saved, they were just swept away.

“The town and the villages were swept away, it’s a tragic thing.”

Officials said about 90 US citizens remained unaccounted for Thursday. Many of the missing were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet , a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others.

Among those on a guided tour was Venus Rajnikant Patel, a 45-year-old Indian-born US citizen who recently moved from St. Louis to Cincinnati to help his family.

Patel’s friend Jolene Gosha said she and her friends knew Patel was in Nepal and were devastated when they realised he was staying at a hotel along the border where the floods swept through.

“We’re just hoping, hoping that by some chance he was able to climb his way out of it,” Gosha told the AP news agency.

“I don’t want to give myself false hope because I know the reality is that he’s probably not with us.”

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the number of out-of-contact foreign nationals had increased to 517.

The international community was scrambling to get aid into flood-stricken parts of Nepal and Tibet on Thursday as authorities warned that a lake ⁠formed at the ⁠site ⁠where the ​deadly torrents occurred ⁠was rising and ⁠at risk ​of ‌bursting.

The catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and obliterating entire villages, killed at least 359 people and left more than 1,300 missing.

Efforts to locate those unaccounted for – including hundreds of tourists from India, the US, Britain, Australia and Canada – have been complicated by the destruction of dozens of bridges and 25 miles (40km) of roads in the mountainous region, which is popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

Rescue teams reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border. Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for advanced medical care and more than 100 people were rescued by Nepali army personnel in helicopters.

Videos from Wednesday’s disaster showed a massive wall of water crashing down on the border as people tried to flee. The power, volume and speed of the floods gave little time for escape.

Trucks were overturned and houses, roads ⁠and power plants were swept away in Nepal, while ​officials in Tibet said they feared “major casualties” after a mudslide hit a border crossing.

Hundreds of people are missing or have been killed after a catastrophic flash flood hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday. Entire villages have been destroyed, many of which are popular pilgrimage and trekking destinations for tourists.

In this edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough talks to the Guardian’s global editor Devika Bhat about how the devastating event unfolded.

The devastating flash flood that ripped through the border communities of Nepal and Tibet has heightened fears that the climate crisis is destabilising the geology of mountain and polar regions, threatening millions of people.

Satellite imagery suggests a glacier collapse high in the Himalayas was the primary cause of the deadly torrent of mud, water and ice that tore along the Bhotekoshi River on Wednesday. It swept away buildings and roads and left at least 389 dead and 1,400 missing.

The ice-rock avalanche pushed boulders and other debris into the Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi River. Water levels in rivers downstream rose by between 7 and 9 metres within 30 minutes, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, an intergovernmental scientific institution.

Scientists are still examining the precise mechanics of the Himalayan disaster, but many observe that glaciers and permafrost around the world are being weakened by global heating, caused by the burning of gas, oil and coal.

The detachment of a chunk of the glacier wall came amid unusual heat that was likely to have melted the ice that bound the splintered bedrock together.

Two days before the collapse, the ground temperature hit its highest point in the last two years, according to Dr Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey, whose team had sensors 6 miles (10km) away from the site. He told the Science Media Centre:

These high temperatures would have weakened the snowpack, filled crevasses with water and thawed the bonds between ice and rock that hold these glaciers in place.

A series of intense heatwaves has hit the region since early this year and has affected countries around the world. Another factor here was the monsoon season, which saturated the soil and swelled rivers.

Disasters like this were foretold. In 2023 the UN’s top scientific advisory body warned that previously ice-bound landmasses – from permafrost tundra to mountain glaciers – would become increasingly unstable as temperatures rose.

Average global temperatures are nudging closer to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Even faster warming is occurring in alpine and polar regions because the loss of snow and ice is removing the thermal insulation of the land.

Dr Richard Waller, a senior lecturer in physical geography at Keele University, said:

The progressive loss of snow and glacier ice results in the surface being less reflective, so it absorbs more solar energy and heats up. In combination with atmospheric warming, this is leading to the melting of mountain permafrost.

Think of the high mountains like this as shattered bedrock glued together by ice-filled joints. As the permafrost and the ice-filled joints melt, then there’s the potential for these types of catastrophic failure.

The thaw is altering the shape, colour and solidity of the landscape, creating or expanding glacial meltwater lakes and, in the long term, threatening the origin of many rivers and the drinking supplies of populations downstream. In many parts of Asia hundreds of millions of people depend on the rivers, such as the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, that descend from the glaciers.

Scientists have high confidence that glacier retreat around the world is caused by human-driven global heating. This has caused glacier collapses from the Alps to the Andes. In the Langtang catchment area in Nepal, glacier loss rates have increased more than fourfold since 1964, a study has shown.

Jonathan Watts is the Guardian’s global environment editor. Read the full report here:

The latest update from Nepal police says that 389 people have been confirmed dead, and 466 injured and rescued.

According to the update, this is the number of recovered bodies by district:

• Rasuwa — 17

• Dhading — 33

• Gorkha — 32

• Nawalparasi East — 87

• Nuwakot — 28

• Chitwan — 137

• Tanahun — 28

• Nawalparasi West — 27

And the injured and rescued by district:

• Rasuwa — 289

• Nuwakot — 90

• Dhading — 3

• Kathmandu — 84

Images coming over the news wires reveal the devastating aftermath of the flash flooding in Nepal.

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck China’s Tibet ⁠region late on Thursday, the German Research Centre ⁠for Geosciences said. Its epicenter was hundreds of ⁠miles north of the regions of ​Nepal and ‌China that were ‌hit by a devastating flash ‌flood.

This earthquake comes after China’s networks center reported a magnitude 4.7 quake ‌in Nagqu, Tibet, on Wednesday, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

By Mark Saunokonoko, Nick Evershed, Mike Hohnen, Paul Scruton, Harvey Symons, Glenn Swann and Lucy Swan

At 8.37am on Wednesday, an enormous section ⁠of a glacier in the Himalayas sheared free and crashed on to the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park, about 35 miles (60km) north of the capital, Kathmandu, near the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border.

Such was the force of the event, it was initially reported as an earthquake of magnitude 4.4. The US Geological Survey later determined the tremor was caused ​by glacial rock and ice collapsing, registering a magnitude of 5.2.

The collapse triggered a huge release of water, mud, rock and ice that thundered down valleys and swept down the Lhende, Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers.

Click the link below to see how this disaster unfolded:

• The international community was scrambling to get aid into flood-stricken parts of Nepal and Tibet on Thursday as authorities warned that a lake ⁠formed at the ⁠site ⁠where the ​deadly torrents occurred ⁠was rising and ⁠at risk ​of ‌bursting. The catastrophic flash floods, which hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and obliterating entire villages, killed at least 359 people and left more than 1,300 missing.

• Efforts to locate those unaccounted for – including hundreds of tourists from India, the US, Britain, Australia and Canada – have been complicated by the destruction of dozens of bridges and almost 25 miles (40km) of roads in the mountainous region, which is popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

• Rescue teams reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border. Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for advanced medical care and more than 100 people were rescued by Nepali army personnel in helicopters.

• Rescue teams in Nepal are searching for at least 33 British nationals who are among those missing after flash floods ravaged its border with Tibet, killing at least 353 people. The tour company Kailash Journeys confirmed it had not been able to account for seven UK nationals – five women and two men aged between 18 and 55 – travelling with it.

• A lake ⁠formed at the ⁠site ⁠where the ​flood in Nepal occurred ⁠is rising and is ⁠at risk ​of ‌bursting, ‌the country’s disaster authority ‌said, as it appealed to residents and ‌rescuers to stay away ​from the river banks. The blockage ⁠of a river ​on Wednesday ​led ​to the ​lake’s formation, ‌Reuters reports the ​authority ​said.

• Nearly 100 ⁠Chinese nationals were missing in Nepal in ⁠the ⁠area ​affected by a massive mudslide and flooding, ⁠China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday. Missing ⁠foreigners on the ​Chinese ‌side include ‌tourists, pilgrims and other personnel, ‌and China is in close communication with Nepal on search and rescue while informing relevant ‌embassies of the situation, foreign ministry spokesperson ​Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing

• The UK has offered £5m to help the Nepalese government amid a “very distressing and devastating situation” following the country’s flash floods, the British prime minister has said. Andy Burnham told reporters an offer had also been made for emergency responders to head to the affected area.

• The US says 90 of its citizens remain missing after the Nepal floods. The state department said it was not aware of any US deaths. Three Americans have been rescued.

• At least 17,000 children have been affected by the devastating flash floods that tore through Nepal’s Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts, Unicef has said. Among the confirmed dead are at least 14 children, with hundreds more still missing. The numbers are expected to rise as search operations continue.

• Pope Leo XIV was “saddened” to hear about deaths and devastation caused by the floods in Nepal, and sent his condolences. On Thursday, the Vatican said the pope was “saddened to learn of the loss of life and devastation caused by the flash floods in Nepal.

• The IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), the world’s largest humanitarian network, posted a clip on X showing the destruction caused by the flooding. It said Red Cross teams are on the ground with food, safe drinking water, emergency shelter materials, first aid and other essential supplies, though roads are damaged and access is “extremely limited”.

• Climate change is leading to conditions that can destabilise high-mountain rock and ice, strengthening prospects for disasters such as this week’s Himalayan flood along the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet, scientists say. While the exact cause of Wednesday’s disaster is still being analysed, scientists say it probably began with a massive ice-rock avalanche on the northern slopes of ​Nepal’s Langtang Lirung peak into the Lhende Khola river on the Tibetan ‌side.

• Scores of Hindu pilgrims from across the world are among those missing after deadly floods swept through the Nepal-Tibet border region, popular Indian spiritual leader Sadhguru said. The Hindu guru, whose real name is Jagdish Vasudev, posted an emotive video message from Tibet on his social media accounts, with several million followers.

• Verified videos showed crushing ⁠masses of water and debris sweeping away dozens of people at a border crossing in Gyirong. Homes, roads and power projects were washed away in Nepal as the flows travelled downstream.

The international community was scrambling to get aid into flood-stricken parts of Nepal and Tibet on Thursday as authorities warned that a lake ⁠formed at the ⁠site ⁠where the ​deadly torrents occurred ⁠was rising and ⁠at risk ​of ‌bursting.

The catastrophic flash floods, which hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and obliterating entire villages, killed at least 359 people and left more than 1,300 missing.

Efforts to locate those unaccounted for – including hundreds of tourists from India, the US, Britain, Australia and Canada – have been complicated by the destruction of dozens of bridges and almost 25 miles (40km) of roads in the mountainous region, which is popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

Rescue teams reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border. Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for advanced medical care and more than 100 people were rescued by Nepali army personnel in helicopters.

Videos from Wednesday’s disaster showed a massive wall of water crashing down on the border as people tried to flee, even though the power, volume and speed of the floods gave little time for escape.

Trucks were overturned and houses, roads ⁠and power plants swept away in Nepal, while ​officials in Tibet said they feared “major casualties” after a mudslide hit a border crossing.

The US says 90 of its citizens remain missing after the Nepal floods.

The state department said it was not aware of any US deaths. Three Americans have been rescued.