Nepal-Tibet Flood Death Toll Hits 157, Hundreds of Tourists Missing

At least 157 bodies have been recovered along the Nepal-Tibet border after catastrophic flash flooding, officials said on Wednesday, with the death toll expected to climb higher as search teams reach cut-off valleys. Hundreds of people, many of them foreign tourists, remain unaccounted for.

The disaster was caused by a glacier-rock collapse rather than the earthquake first reported, according to the US Geological Survey. The agency said seismic activity initially recorded as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake “was instead a glacial collapse and debris flow” that “caused subsequent catastrophic impacts downstream.”

The wall of mud and water tore through settlements on both sides of the border. Officials believe about 340 foreign nationals are among the missing, including citizens of India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Malaysia and Ukraine.

A Nepali tour operator said he fears 15 Australians trekking with his company have died. Sagar Pandey, founder of Himalayan Glacier Trekking, said he lost all contact with a tour group of 47 people, which included the Australians. Children as young as 11 were among that group.

Footage filmed by a construction worker in Mailung captured the moment floodwaters swept into a work site, with labourers scrambling to higher ground. Survivors described being separated from family members in seconds. One man said his wife was pulled from his grasp and swept away; a helicopter reached him hours later.

The event follows earlier reports this week that placed the toll at 98 dead and 403 missing, figures that have since risen sharply as rescuers gain access to buried areas. Earlier accounts of the rising casualties across the Nepal-China frontier reflected only the initial hours of the disaster.

Rescue operations have been slowed by continued debris flows, damaged roads and unstable terrain in the high Himalayan valleys. Helicopters have been deployed to lift stranded survivors, though poor weather has limited flights.

Authorities on both sides of the border have warned that the number of confirmed dead is likely to rise as more bodies are recovered from the mud and as contact is re-established with missing trekking groups.

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