Rescue teams and military helicopters searched Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-China border, where a deadly torrent of water and mud several stories high swept through communities a day earlier following a glacier collapse.
Videos of the disaster showed people running before the floodwaters swallowed them up and washed out buildings and bridges. More than 360 people were killed, police said, and more than 1,400 were missing, including scores of foreigners and pilgrims. Hundreds of others have been displaced across the Himalayan region.
The steep slopes and lush valleys below the Himalayan mountain range — home to many of the world’s highest peaks and remaining glaciers — are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Melting glaciers have become more common because of human-caused climate change.
Images showed what appeared to be the second floors of buildings in Nepal’s hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud after the torrent rushed by. Riverbanks and village streets were covered in mud. Debris hung from tree branches and wires. Vehicles were buried, and some stunned survivors were caked in mud.
Before-and-after images aired by state broadcaster China Central Television showed a multistory building and more than a dozen vehicles covered in mud. A two-lane road running along a river in a valley in Tibet’s Shigatse prefecture was completely buried. Aerial footage also showed that a lake had formed and expanded on the China-Nepal border.
