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Xinlu Liang

Fan Chen

Alyssa Chen

Rescue teams struggled to reach the site of a massive Himalayan mudslide and flash flood on the China-Nepal border as the toll from the disaster rose to 392 dead, with more than 1,000 missing.
As of Friday morning, three people were confirmed dead and 558 missing on the Chinese side, with 389 dead and at least 644 missing in Nepal.
“Nearly 100” Chinese nationals were missing on the Nepalese side, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said in Beijing on Thursday. The Chinese embassy in Nepal was working with local authorities to further verify the information, he added.
Those missing on the Chinese side include 260 foreign nationals, according to an official update on Thursday morning from Shigatse, the city in China’s Tibet autonomous region that administers the Gyirong border checkpoint.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived at the checkpoint on Thursday afternoon to direct disaster relief efforts and visit emergency responders.


The Nepal Tourism Board said that among the missing from the disaster were 540 foreign nationals from more than two dozen countries.
About 178 of them are from India, 65 from the United States, 35 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada. Malaysia has confirmed that 55 of its citizens are among the missing. A spokesman for the Nepal Tourism Board earlier told Associated Press that 133 of the missing tourists were Indian pilgrims.
Chinese authorities have mobilised more than 1,500 rescue personnel, including firefighters, soldiers and engineering teams, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management. Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing had arrived at the scene to direct operations but a newly formed barrier lake was complicating rescue efforts, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported earlier on Thursday.


The disaster started in Nepal and hit Gyirong county in Shigatse at around 10.30am on Wednesday.
Guo Zhaocheng, a senior remote-sensing engineer from China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, said the disaster was triggered by the collapse of a high-altitude glacier in Nepal.
The falling ice mass surged downstream, becoming a debris flow and striking the Chinese port facilities, Guo told CCTV.
Initial assessments by Nepalese officials pointed to a possible earthquake-triggered collapse of a glacier’s lower section, which may have unleashed the devastating floodwaters.
The impact of the glacial avalanche was so immense that it released energy equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 earthquake, registering on seismographs as a strong tremor.
However, the US Geological Survey confirmed that no tectonic quake took place.




The area sits alongside a key pilgrimage corridor leading to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, which draw hundreds of devotees from India and beyond each year, especially during the warmer months.
Rescue operations at the stricken port are facing critical roadblocks. According to CCTV and the Shigatse military sub-command, a barrier lake about 2.5km (1.6 miles) from the port and choked with mudslide debris nearly 1.5 metres (5 feet) thick, is severely hampering heavy equipment access.
The barrier lake, located at the confluence of a river in Nepal and another in China, posed a risk of triggering secondary landslides, China’s Ministry of Water Resources warned.

The water ministry said the lake was already holding about 2 million cubic metres of water, and it had “begun to overflow”.
Another 3 million cubic metres was expected to flow into the lake over the next three days, posing a “high risk of a dam breach”, the ministry told CCTV, adding that conditions could worsen with heavy rain on the way.
The ministry has sent specialists to the site to monitor the barrier lake.
Rescue personnel told Chinese media outlet The Paper that draining the barrier lake was the top priority as only then could crews safely clear nearly 3km of sediment jammed upstream of the port.
Meanwhile, continuous rain forecast for the next three days poses a critical threat of secondary disasters, including landslides, rockfalls and flash floods, according to Chinese weather officials.
Engineers from China’s Ministry of Natural Resources have also underscored the risks posed by the treacherous terrain – including a vertical plunge exceeding 3,000 metres from icy glacial summit lakes to the valley floor below.
The disaster has completely cut off road access and severed local power and communication networks, with five base stations down, according to CCTV. Rescue teams remain unable to establish direct contact with the core port area.


Apart from the 1,500 emergency management personnel, 248 workers from central state‑owned enterprises, along with more than 120 units of heavy machinery, Mi‑171 helicopters and a Y-20 transport aircraft have been sent for aerial reconnaissance and logistics, according to CCTV. Dozens of telecoms workers and power grid staff are also at the scene in an effort to restore connectivity.
Beijing has allocated 120 million yuan (US$17.8 million) in emergency relief funds for Tibet, as well as 100 million yuan for infrastructure restoration, according to the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission.
With the barrier lake threatening to breach and unstable slopes overhead, rescue teams were waiting for conditions to stabilise before entering the core zone, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
Military engineers were working through the worsening weather to clear blocked roads, the report said.


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China-Nepal flash flood: 392 dead and over 1,000 missing, including hundreds of foreigners

A rescuer helps a resident through heavy mud following flash floods in Trishuli, Nepal. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

Chinese rescuers prepare to head to the stricken Gyirong Port in southwest Tibet on August 27. Photo: Xinhua

‘Massive casualties’ after flash floods, landslide strike China-Nepal border

The landslide struck Tibet's Gyirong county at around 9am on Wednesday, causing major casualties and leaving a number of people missing, according to state media. Photo: Handout

Footage circulating online shows people on the ground fleeing, moments before the disaster strikes. Photo: Handout

The disaster has cut off roads leading to the port, as well as communications and power supplies, according to the Gyirong county emergency management bureau. Photo: Xinhua

A team from an emergency response company firm deployed to the disaster zone has brought large-scale construction machinery and advanced gear, including reconnaissance drones, according to state media. Photo: Handout

A combination of satellite images shows the valleys near the Nepal-China border on Tuesday, before the devastating landslide and floods (top), and on Wednesday, after the disaster.  Photo: 2026 PLANET LABS PBC via Reuters

The authorities have closed the roads leading to the disaster site for the next seven days. Photo: Handout

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Premier Li Qiang at scene after ice-rock avalanche triggers disaster leaving hundreds of tourists from around the world unaccounted for


Premier Li Qiang at scene after ice-rock avalanche triggers disaster leaving hundreds of tourists from around the world unaccounted for.


China-Nepal flash flood: 392 dead and over 1,000 missing, including hundreds of foreigners

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Premier Li Qiang at scene after ice-rock avalanche triggers disaster leaving hundreds of tourists from around the world unaccounted for

Premier Li Qiang at scene after ice-rock avalanche triggers disaster leaving hundreds of tourists from around the world unaccounted for