Rescue teams in Nepal and China were still searching on Saturday for thousands of people missing after a deadly wall of water and debris swept through Himalayan villages days earlier.
The number of missing people rose to nearly 3,000, while 633 bodies had been recovered, according to the latest figures from both countries. Some victims may have been carried downstream into India.
Nepal’s disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to its missing persons list. The list also includes trekkers and pilgrims heading to Tibet’s Mount Kailash.
Survivors described losing everything and waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones.
“All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” survivor Buddhi Ram Dangol told AFP.
Samjhana Thing, who had been waiting three days for news of her missing brother, said: “We don’t know anything. Hopefully he is in a safe place,”
The Red Cross said the trauma from Wednesday’s disaster had been “enormous”, with up to 93,000 people possibly affected. It warned that the death toll could rise.
Emergency teams faced shortages of food and water while searching devastated areas. Further flooding also threatened rescue efforts after the flood created huge lakes.
Nepali police told rescuers to “immediately move to a safe location” after receiving information that “a water dam has burst again on the Tibetan side”.
In Tibet, China suspended rescue work in Gyirong over renewed flooding fears before saying the danger had eased. Xinhua later reported that two villagers had been rescued.
On Nepal’s side, the military found people trapped inside a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project.
“Two helicopters have been dispatched, but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,” army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.
About 350 workers and residents were rescued, while more than 100 remained trapped.
Nepal reported 626 deaths and 2,426 people, including hundreds of foreigners, out of contact. Tibet reported seven deaths and 554 missing people.
Indian authorities recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal.
Among those missing were Hindu pilgrims travelling to Mount Kailash. Sivaranjani Muthunathan, travelling with 56 others, said their bus became trapped before a sudden surge engulfed the area.
“Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us,” she told AFP.
Vehicles were swept away or buried in mud as the group escaped through the driver’s side and climbed a nearby hill.
