Nepal floods latest: Number of people missing jumps significantly to nearly 2,000

Charlotte Scarr
Reporting from Delhi

I’ve been speaking to a consultant from the National Trauma Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal.

In the last 48 hours, his department has received a number of the survivors from these deadly floods. He told me that 38 injured people have been admitted – and the majority of these have been transported from the Trishuli area.

“Most of the injuries are minor injuries because these were people who were able to escape, however there are some who were pulled into the flood waters.”

“They were pushed to the outer edges of the torrent which is how they were able to survive… they were literally thrown away,” he adds.

He says the patients that he has been treating have “suffered various injuries to the chest, abdomen, face and legs”. They had mainly experienced impacts from pieces of wood and the mud waters.

He tells me about one story that he found particularly heartbreaking. An eight-year-old boy had been admitted to the hospital with minor injuries. He survived because he had been at school at the time of the floods, but the rest of his family at home had been swept away.

China’s armed forces has said heavy rain over the weekend could complicate rescue efforts, as “mudslides may occur in some areas”.

In a post on X, it says rescue efforts have been taking place near Gyirong Port.

Gyirong is the largest land border crossing between Tibet and Nepal.

The “steep terrain and narrow valleys” have made rescue operations “extremely difficult”, the Chinese armed forces’ account writes, adding “frequent rain” in the area is forecast until Sunday.

The army says “the main challenges” are unstable terrain, damaged roads, poor weather and disrupted communications.

Satellite images show scale of devastationpublished at 17:40 BST

By Paul Brown and Alex Murray

The scale of the destruction along Nepal’s Trishuli River has been revealed in new satellite imagery reviewed by BBC Verify.

Among the worst-hit locations is the Nepal-Tibet border crossing, where the moment was captured on CCTV on Wednesday when the area was engulfed by a huge surge of floodwater.

The satellite imagery from US-based intelligence firm Vantor shows the site has been almost entirely washed away. It also shows how the flood was powerful enough to force water and debris uphill to the west of the crossing.

Damage and mud can be seen more than 2.5km (1.5 miles) upstream, some of it more than 100m (330ft) above the normal level of the river.

The Vantor images also show hydroelectric dams and large areas of villages downstream have been wiped out, leaving only mud and debris behind.

It’s just past 22:00 in Nepal and past midnight in Tibet – a bit more than 60 hours since the floods hit.

Here’s a look at some of the latest developments:

• The number of people missing in Nepal has risen to nearly 2,000, according to the country’s disaster relief agency
• It says 517 foreign nationals are among them. As is not uncommon shortly after a major disaster, different figures have emerged – Nepalese police earlier said 575 foreign nationals, including 33 Brits, were among those missing

• The death toll in Nepal has also risen to 579, the disaster relief agency says
• In Tibet, five people have died and more than 550 are missing, Chinese state media says, but it is not clear if these numbers overlap with Nepal’s. Here’s more on why its hard to gauge the scale of the impact in Tibet
• Chinese officials are monitoring a barrier lake that formed following the landslide – it temporarily suspended search efforts earlier over fears there could be a breach, releasing more water. Rescue efforts have since resumed

• Families across the world remain in limbo as they await news – Anant Patel from Coventry told the BBC he’s trying to “stay strong” as he waits for news of his parents, who were on a pilgrimage in the area

James Kelly
Your Voice

Anant Patel, 29, from Coventry, is nervously waiting for word of his missing parents, Bipin and Mala.

The pair travelled from Coventry on a pilgrimage, and Anant believes they crossed into Tibet from Nepal moments before the flood hit the Gyirong border crossing.

“It’s a difficult situation for us all, and we are doing our best to stay strong as best as we can in the circumstances,” Anant says.

Anant has been in contact with the UK’s Foreign Office, but he and his 27-year-old brother, Deepesh, are concerned about the length of time they may have to wait for information.

Bipin and Mala are among several pilgrims who were in the region when the floods hit.

The area around the Nepal-Tibet border is a popular site for Hindus and Buddhists – tens of thousands visit on trips to sacred sites each year.

Images show flood survivors sheltering in building battered by raging waterpublished at 16:16 BST

By Charlotte Green

Dramatic videos from Bidur in Nepal have emerged which show people sheltering in a building which remained standing despite being battered by a torrent of floodwater which gutted or washed away much of the town.

The first video from Wednesday, confirmed by BBC Verify, shows the building somehow withstanding surging floodwater and violent waves while people desperately take shelter within it, during the peak of the flash floods.

Debris from other buildings, and vehicles caught up in the torrent can also be seen colliding with the building, which had become surrounded on all sides by floodwater.

The second video shows how the green house remained virtually intact despite the devastation brought upond the surrounding area, around 45km (28 miles) from the start of the flood.

In the verified clip, a group of survivors can be seen standing on its balcony after the floodwater had receded leaving mud and debris behind. One person can also been seen on the roof waving a red cloth, seemingly calling for help.

Navin Singh Khadka
Environment correspondent, BBC World Service

Meteorology officials in Nepal have said they are now trying to monitor two other glaciers close to the one that collapsed causing the devastating floods on Wednesday.

They say the monitoring is crucial because some images they have received seem to show cracks on the glaciers.

They quickly add that the cracks may not mean a sign of imminent collapse and that they could be something the glaciers have had for some time now.

“But given what has happened with the nearby glacier, we are trying to monitor this as much as possible,” a senior official with Nepal’s department of hydrology and meteorology told the BBC.

The official said they were examining drone pictures shared by China, that were taken in and around the glacier collapse site on the northern flank of Mount Langtang Lirung, which is on the Nepal side of the border.

Experts with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an international organisation that specialises on Himalayan hazards, said the two other glaciers feed into the same Lhende river that was flooded.

“Satellite imagery suggests one of the glaciers may contain hanging glacier ice masses that warrant observation and assessment,” said Qianggong Zhang, head of climate and environmental risks, with ICIMOD.

Scientists say hanging glaciers can be more hazardous because they cling to steep mountain slopes – just like a part of the collapsed glacier did.

Images from Nepal show people waiting to board an army helicopter during a rescue mission in the village of Hatigauda, Nuwakot district.

It comes after Nepal’s information minister Bikram Timilsina earlier said some of worse affected areas were “physically totally disconnected”, with helicopter being the only viable rescue method.

Laura Bicker
China correspondent

Tibet, which China annexed in the 1950s, is one of the most strictly controlled regions in the country.

It has long demanded greater autonomy and is heavily monitored because Beijing fears any signs of instability such as protests.

That is why orders have come personally from the top leader Xi Jinping, and Premier Li Qiang visited the site on Thursday. It is rare for him to make a visit so soon after a major disaster.

To get into Tibet requires a special visa and it is difficult, if not impossible, for foreign media to gain entry. Trying to contact people there is just as hard.

This makes it very difficult for us to know what is happening, and we are relying heavily on reports from Chinese state media.

Pilgrims making their way from Nepal through Tibet to the sacred mountain of Mount Kailash need four separate permits, which includes special permission from the Chinese military.

The number of people killed in Nepal has risen to 579, according to the latest release by Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA).

Officials say that around 4,000 people have been rescued.

We can now bring you more information from Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.

In its latest update, it says the number of people missing in Nepal has risen to 1,924, with 15,000 security personnel deployed in search and rescue operations.

That figure includes 517 foreign nationals, it says.

A little while ago we brought you an update from the Nepalese police, which said 575 foreign nationals were missing. The two authorities are separate, and the data from Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority is dated two hours after the data released by the police.

The number of foreign nationals missing in Nepal has risen to 575, the Nepalese police have said.

That’s an increase from their last update around six hours ago, when they said around 537 foreign nationals were missing.

There are missing foreign nationals from 36 countries, it says, including 183 Indian nationals, 65 US nationals, and 62 Ukrainian nationals.

It says there are 33 British nationals missing.

There are 149 Nepalese tourists to the area missing, it says.

Update 15:50: This post has been updated to clarify that 149 Nepalese tourists are missing. According to the latest government update 1,407 Nepalese people are unaccounted for.

Drone video captures moment of glacier collapsepublished at 14:27 BST

By Charlotte Green and Benedict Garman

BBC Verify has authenticated two videos which show the moment of a glacier collapse in the Himalayas which triggered the deadly Nepal-Tibet floods.

The videos, filmed by a drone and posted to the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, capture the landslide near the Langtang Lirung peak, more than 7,200m (23,600ft) above sea level.

Plumes of dust can be seen rising into the air near the snow-covered mountains.

The location of the clips match the direction of the floodwater which surged down the Trishuli river, devastating villages and communities along its way.

Mark Poynting
Climate and science reporter

As we’ve been reporting, a barrier lake has formed in the region, where water has been collecting behind a natural dam of loose rock and mud.

One possibility is the water could slowly spill over the crest of the dam or seep through the rocks, which would allow the lake to gradually drain away.

But the fear is that could also destabilise the dam, potentially causing it to suddenly break apart.

This could allow much of the lake water to be released at once.

“Unlike an engineered dam, this barrier has no spillway and no solid core,” says Dr Fatima Pillosu of the University of Reading.

“So, dams of this kind often fail, many within days or weeks of forming,” she adds.

Scientists will be closely monitoring the lake’s water levels and any changes to the structure of the dam.

But they say it’s not possible to predict exactly when – or even whether – a sudden collapse will happen.

We’ve got more detail on the barrier lake in a separate story here.

China has warned there is a “high risk” that a lake which formed after the landslide could breach its banks.

A type of barrier lake, a body of water formed when debris dams a river, concerns over its levels saw rescue efforts temporarily suspended today, but they have since resumed.

In the video below, our China correspondent Laura Bicker talks you through why officials are so concerned about it.

In Nepal, rescue efforts are continuing following deadly flash floods.

Helicopters have been drafted in to rescue those stranded.

Away from the worst-hit areas, family members are lining up to speak to officials about their missing relatives.

Adam Mandeville
Reporting from Belfast

Sabin Pandey lives in Northern Ireland and helps to run a tour company in Nepal.

Sabin’s cousin, who is a tour guide in the region, has been missing since the disaster, along with 46 other people in the tour group.

“It’s a very difficult time,” he tells BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster.

At first, Sabin thought the lack of signal was stopping the group from making contact. But, when Sabin’s brother took a helicopter over the hotel the group had been staying in, he says there was “no trace” of the building.

“My heart sank. The whole hotel is completely rubble.”

Now, Sabin believes there are “very slim chances that we could get any survivors”.

Shreejana Shrestha
BBC Nepali, reporting from Nuwakot

BBC Nepali’s Shreejana Shrestha travelled to Nuwakot, one of the main affected districts in central Nepal, to visit an army camp that had been turned into a search and rescue centre. This is what she saw.

I entered the camp to an absolutely heartbreaking scene.

Hundreds of people were queuing outside, desperately trying to see if they could find their loved ones.

Inside, a woman cradling an infant in her arms was crying hysterically. Her entire family, including her father, husband and mother, were all missing. She was traumatised, and in so much pain.

There were other people who had sustained injuries, and some who said they had miraculously survived.

One driver who was working in Rasua told us he’d been thrown into the water when the floods hit. He still doesn’t know how he managed to survive. Yet while thankful to be alive, he was also devastated – he had lost more than 20 of his friends.

When I tried speaking to him I could see he was unable to focus, and not in a proper state of mind. There were tears in his eyes.

At one point while I was filming, a woman – perhaps in her 60s or 70s – was taken out of a helicopter and brought to the centre to be treated. She suddenly collapsed as I was recording, and I later learned that she had died.

It is difficult to describe what I saw.

You can read more of Shreejana Shrestha’s account in our story

It’s just gone 17:30 in Kathmandu, and rescue operations are still ongoing after a deluge of material careered towards northern Nepalese towns on Wednesday.

Here’s a look at the latest developments:

• Chinese officials are monitoring a barrier lake that formed following Wednesday’s landslide, saying the situation is “currently at a critical stage” due to the risk of overflowing
• Earlier, Chinese state media said rescue operations had to be paused after water started trickling out of the lake but efforts have since resumed
• China has confirmed the death toll in Tibet has risen to five, with 558 people missing
• In Nepal, police say 547 bodies have been recovered so far, with a further 1,473 injured. An extra 1,200 soldiers have been deployed to speed up search and recovery, the PM’s office has said
• More than 900 people remain missing, including hundreds of foreign tourists – from countries including India, the US, Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia and the UK
• “I’m telling my kids to prepare for the worst,” the husband of missing Briton Geetha Reddy tells the BBC, as he works to find out whether she survived the floods
• The Nepal Tourism Board says 121 foreign nationals have been rescued since Wednesday and that “all necessary efforts” are taking place to “rescue and evacuate injured, stranded and affected people”

The Nepali army has been working to rescue survivors who had been trapped inside a tunnel at a hydropower project in Rasuwa.

Footage shared by the country’s prime minister office shows soldiers carrying survivors and crawling across thick slates of mud to reach others.

Watch the video below: