Rescue teams waded through mud on Thursday searching for more than 1,400 people still missing, including an Israeli man, after flash floods and landslides struck the Nepal-Tibet border. The death toll rose sharply to at least 362, with entire villages swept away.
Experts warned of the risk of further floods a day after the devastating tsunami-like wall of freezing water and mud wiped out towns under a torrent of sludge, engulfing homes, smashing bridges and dams, and sweeping vehicles away like toys.
Many of the missing are foreign tourists, including scores of Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred snow-capped Mount Kailash.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was doing all it could to assist in the search for the missing Israeli, who crossed the Tibet-Nepal border on Wednesday morning shortly before the flood struck. His condition and whereabouts remained unknown.
The Israeli consulate in Beijing and the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Israelis Abroad were in contact with the man’s family “and are assisting with all available means in an effort to locate him,” the ministry said, without giving specific details.
