NUWAKOT, Nepal: A lake formed by a landslide on the Nepal-China border started to overflow on Friday (Aug 28), triggering panic and putting at risk areas devastated by a flash flood two days ago as rescue efforts were forced to halt temporarily.Wednesday's catastrophic flood caused by a glacier collapse killed 489 people in Nepal and five in China's Tibet, with almost 1,000 more missing in the two countries.A huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris cascaded through Himalayan mountain river systems after the collapse, and also led to the formation of a lake where water continued to collect and rise.On Friday, the lake's reservoir had topped 2.5 million cubic metres of water, up from the estimated 1.5 to 2 million cubic metres recorded a day earlier, before overflowing into the Bhotekoshi River, authorities and witnesses in Nepal said.
“We have received a notice saying that the lake has broken its banks," Narendra Pariyar, the most senior bureaucrat in Nepal's flood-hit Rasuwa district, told Reuters. "But we do not know how big it is and how high is its water level. We can see that the level of water in the river is rising.”People ran to higher ground carrying belongings as announcements were made warning them to stay away from the river and police personnel remained on standby with ropes and stretchers, Reuters witnesses said."Everyone started saying 'run', so I ran. The siren in Bidur (town) also went off. I was very scared," Shanti Tamang, 40, told Reuters.Rescue workers were also asked to move to safer places along with their equipment.
