At least 98 people were killed and hundreds of others went missing in Nepal Wednesday when an avalanche triggered massive flash floods.
The prime minister's office in Nepal reported at least 95 dead. China's state broadcaster CCTV said a mudslide in the Tibet region's Gyirong County near the border killed at least three and left 265 missing. Drone footage showed roads destroyed and buildings buried. State news agency Xinhua reported significant casualties.
The Bhotekoshi River flooded around 9 a.m. local time Wednesday, destroying several villages, roads and hydropower projects, officials said.
"We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue efforts," said Sasmit Pokharel, a spokesperson for the Nepali government.
Dozens of multistoried buildings, trucks, and vans were buried under vast quantities of mud in the district of Nuwakot, one of the worst-affected areas.
Officials warned residents in several of Nepal’s districts and asked them to stay away from the banks of the Bhotekoshi, Trishuli, and Narayani rivers.
Officials in Nepal said 403 people, including 341 foreign nationals, were reported missing. Sunil Sharma, a tourism board spokesperson, said 133 were from India on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus. Also missing were 47 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 24 from Canada, he said.
At least 62 missing Nepali citizens were among hundreds of locals trekking in the Gosaikunda Lake area in Rasuwa, coinciding with the local festival of Janai Purnima on Friday, Sharma added. Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told The Associated Press at least 28 police officials were missing.
South Korean government officials said their citizens working on building a hydropower plant in Nepal were among those reported missing.
Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry also said its embassy in Kathmandu has received reports from travel agencies that they had lost contact with 11 Malaysians believed to be in the Rasuwa district, which was hit hard by the floods.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities were conducting large-scale search and rescue operations in the Tibetan border area of Gyirong, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Authorities didn't announce any numbers of dead or injured.
Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered authorities to step up the efforts for people missing after the mudslide, state news agency Xinhua reported. Xi also called for residents at risk to be evacuated from any area on the Chinese side.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah and offered help. "India is prepared to provide Nepal with all possible types of humanitarian assistance. Our teams are closely coordinating on rescue and relief efforts,” Modi said in a social media post.
The same regions affected by Wednesday's disaster saw flash floods similar to those in August last year, when a glacial lake in neighboring Tibet overflowed because of high temperatures in the mountain region. Nine people were killed, and critical infrastructure, including a bridge connecting Nepal and China, was damaged at the time.
Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development say an avalanche from a glacier likely caused Wednesday's flash flood.
The Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi River, witnessed maximum flooding Wednesday, they said.
"The Lhende Khola has flooded twice in fourteen months, this time triggered by an ice rock avalanche from a glacier on the Nepal side that blocked the river and released a sudden surge downstream,” said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at the climate research group.
"In a warming Himalaya, early warning is the first line of adaptation,” he added.
The Himalayan region, which spans Nepal and several nearby countries, including India, is especially vulnerable to heavy rains, floods and landslides because it is warming faster than the rest of the world due to human-caused climate change. Research shows that extreme weather events, including heat waves and rains, and melting glaciers, have become more frequent in the region.
Researchers in Kathmandu found earlier this year that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region are melting at an accelerating rate, with ice loss rates doubling since 2000 primarily due to rising global temperatures and climate change.
