Nepal flood rescue intensifies as toll crosses 160, hundreds missing

Rescue teams in Nepal deployed helicopters on Thursday to search for hundreds of people still unaccounted for after a massive wall of mud and rock crashed into a river along the Himalayan border with China's Tibet. The resulting floods tore through towns and valleys, leaving at least 162 people dead, with authorities warning the toll is likely to climb.

Police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle said the number of fatalities would rise as search operations resumed and more bodies were recovered. Nepal's tourism board reported that more than 400 of the 579 missing tourists were foreigners, including 47 Americans, 34 Australians, 33 Britons, and 24 Canadians.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported 558 missing in Tibet's Gyirong county, including 260 foreign nationals, though it remained unclear if the figures from the two nations overlapped. Verified videos showed torrents of water and debris sweeping away people at a border crossing, with homes, roads, and power projects destroyed downstream in Nepal.

A 68-year-old survivor, Keshav Prasad Baral, described the ordeal from his hospital bed. "It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us," he said. "When I saw it enter our home, I tried to grab my wife's hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud." He was airlifted to safety hours later, but his wife remains missing.

In the hardest-hit districts, helicopters are dropping tents, food, and other emergency supplies provided by neighbouring India, according to army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet. The U.S. Geological Survey determined that an initial earthquake reading of magnitude 4.4 was actually seismic energy generated by the collapse of glacial rock and ice, followed by a debris flow.

Many of the victims were pilgrims travelling to Kailash Mansarovar, a high-altitude site in Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists. The U.S. State Department said it was sending a disaster response adviser and providing $500,000 in assistance. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney described the floods as "absolutely devastating," while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said teams were sending supplies to support affected communities.

Security footage from the Chinese side of the border showed people fleeing a torrent of rock, mud, and water that destroyed buildings and vehicles. In Nepal, families gathered outside an army training centre in Nuwakot, using mobile phone flashlights to register the names of missing relatives after power was cut off by damage to hydropower plants.

An initial study of satellite imagery indicated a landslide of ice and rock unleashed a debris-filled flood in the Lhende River, about 20 km northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing. "There is devastation everywhere we look," said Tula Bahadur BK, a health worker in Rasuwa. "The settlements next to the river have been completely swept away. Five of my own relatives are missing."

China's official Xinhua news agency said the mudslide hit the Gyirong port, cutting roads, communications, and power links in the border region of Shigatse. A rescuer told state broadcaster CCTV that all roads to the border crossing were "completely destroyed" following a drone inspection.