Updated on: August 28, 2026 / 5:17 AM EDT
/ CBS/AP
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Kathmandu, Nepal — Rescuers pulled out survivors caked in dark brown mud and helicopters lifted stranded people to safety Friday as Nepal and China raced to respond after catastrophic flash floods killed more than 470 people and left more than 1,500 missing.Nepal authorities said the death toll there rose to 469, injured people were taken to hospitals and helicopters carried more than 3,000 people to safety. Survivors, including the injured, were taken to Kathmandu and other locations.In contrast, on the Chinese side, there was little information on survivors, although the death toll rose to five Friday as state media showed evacuations of villages and leaders' efforts to direct relief efforts. China's state media previously said 558 people were missing and Nepal's disaster management authority said Friday that 977 people were missing. Hundreds of them were foreigners who were in the area to work, trek or make a pilgrimage to a sacred peak.Nepal police issued a fresh alert Friday after receiving information that a dam on the Tibet side had burst. Security personnel and rescue and relief workers were told to stay on high alert and immediately move to a safe location if necessary.It was unclear if the dam is related to the flooding concern from a barrier lake that formed behind a dam made up of debris from the initial flash floods, high up in the Chinese side of the Himalayan mountains. Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told The Associated Press that the rescue operation was continuing but with high alert. "It hasn't stopped."
