Bidur (Nepal) (AFP) – Rescuers in Nepal and China battled Sunday through leg-sucking mud and the threat of rising rivers and a newly formed lake to search for thousands missing after a deadly wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayas, engulfing entire villages.
The disaster, which struck the China-Nepal border Wednesday morning, was caused by a glacial collapse, sending a wall of water and debris downstream, the US Geological Survey said.Chinese rescuers near the Tibet border port that was hit by a deadly mudslide were "moved to a safe location" Sunday, after a new lake was formed by a landslide, state media reported.Nepali army troops and engineers were working on Sunday to rescue workers believed trapped in a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site after they successfully inserted a pipe into the passage.
(COMBO) This combination of handout satellite images released by Vantor on August 28, 2026 shows a part of the town of Timure, Nepal on July 1, 2026 (top) and on August 28, 2026 (bottom) after the floods © - / Satellite image ©2026 Vantor/AFP
They have "started sending air through the small opening", Nepali Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement. But efforts were hampered on Sunday by rain and rising river waters, with Nepal's disaster authorities urging rescue teams to "exercise caution".In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal's disaster authority listed 933 hydropower workers among the missing.China's state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday that experts had said "a glacier on the southern slope of Lirung Peak in Nepal" fractured, triggering an ice-rock avalanche.It said the torrent plummeted rapidly, forming a massive debris flow that travelled more than 20 kilometres before crashing into Gyirong Port. "The sudden glacial collapse and flash flood is a devastating reminder of how fragile these mountain environments can be," UN climate chief Simon Steill said in a statement.'Nothing left'Survivors face an agonising wait to learn the fate of missing relatives and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing.
