The death toll from last week's devastating Himalayan glacial floods passed 1,000 on Tuesday, as Chinese and Nepali teams searched for survivors. Nepal's foreign minister said the disaster was "a warning signal" of the growing risks posed by climate change.
Issued on: 01/09/2026 - 19:51
3 min Reading time
Nearly 4,500 people are missing after a wave of freezing water, rocks and debris from a high-altitude glacial collapse roared downstream last Wednesday, wiping out entire settlements and gouging a path of destruction through Nepal. More than 1,000 bodies have been recovered, but the destruction of bridges and power stations, along with ongoing rain, is hampering relief efforts. Rescue teams are digging, drilling and blasting through debris in a race against time in treacherous conditions to free around 100 hydropower workers believed trapped in multiple tunnels. Thousands of people displaced by the flash floods are living in temporary relief camps, their homes either washed away or buried beneath silt and mud. With mortuaries overflowing in Nepal, authorities have begun burying hundreds of unidentified bodies after DNA sampling. At least 17 bodies have also been pulled from rivers far downstream in India. Kathmandu has appealed for international support, saying Nepal needed "more than a thousand" freezer units to store bodies.
