Nuwakot (Nepal) (AFP) – Rescuers in Nepal and China were still battling Saturday to locate thousands of people missing days after a deadly, tsunami-like wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan region, engulfing villages.
Issued on: 29/08/2026 - 03:38Modified: 29/08/2026 - 07:23
4 min Reading time
The number of missing soared close to 3,000 Saturday, latest figures from both countries showed, with 633 bodies recovered -- and reports of some dead possibly swept downstream as far away as India.In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal's disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to a missing persons list already including trekkers and pilgrims to Tibet's sacred Mount Kailash.Those that made it out say they have lost everything and now face an agonising wait to discover the fate of missing loved ones, and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing."All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left," survivor Buddhi Ram Dangol told AFP.Samjhana Thing said she had been waiting three days for news of her missing brother."We don't know anything. Hopefully he is in a safe place," she said.'Enormous' trauma
A school student holds a LED candle as he pays homage to people who died in Nepal's flash flood, in Chennai on August 28, 2026. © R. Satish BABU / AFP
