Deadly Nepal Floods Leave 3,000 Missing After Glacier Burst

Over 3,000 people remain missing days after deadly floods tore through the border region between Nepal and China. A glacier high in the Himalayas gave way Wednesday, sending massive waves down the Trishuli and Bhotekoshi rivers and burying villages along the way. The death toll has climbed to at least 734 as bodies wash ashore even in neighboring India.

Rescuers are digging frantically for more than 900 workers trapped inside tunnels and project sites across central Nepal. These missing individuals include citizens from Nepal, India, South Korea, and China. Authorities in the Tibet region of China and Nepal have confirmed that some victims were swept away downstream while others remain buried under tons of mud and rock.

On Friday, rising waters behind a debris dam forced a temporary pause in search operations near Gyirong. Fears of a second catastrophic surge led to this halt until officials deemed the barrier lake manageable. Al Jazeera's Katrina Yu reported from Beijing that Chinese authorities are watching the site closely using satellites, radars, and drones. They say the risk has dropped but not vanished completely.

"They are confident that if the situation around the barrier lake should deteriorate, they will be able to give notice of about 30 minutes to rescuers below," Yu explained. Rescue teams resumed work after confirming the threat had receded enough to proceed safely.

As of Sunday morning, the Independent Power Producers' Association listed 933 people missing or unaccounted for. They were employed at eleven hydropower sites and tunnels in Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, areas now devastated by flash floods. The exact number trapped at each specific location remains unclear to investigators on the ground.

Nepal's prime minister's office stated that complaints about workers stuck inside tunnels prompted immediate government action. A joint team of 82 personnel has been deployed continuously since last night to clear rubble and dig tunnel entrances. This squad includes 62 soldiers from the Nepali Army and 20 officers from the Armed Police Force Nepal and Nepal Police. Adverse weather conditions persist, making every meter of progress a hard-won battle against the elements.

Videos circulating on social media show Nepali soldiers wading through thick mud to reach workers at the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project, which holds 216 megawatts of capacity. The army has successfully rescued 254 people from that specific site so far. But other locations present nearly impossible challenges.

At the Chilime Hydropower project in Rasuwa district, located 133 km north of Kathmandu, rescue teams face a blocked path. Baburaj Maharjan, executive director of Chilime Hydropower Company, told the Kathmandu Post that they cannot enter the tunnel because it is completely filled with mud. "We have not been able to carry out a rescue," he said. The situation demands urgent attention as every hour counts for those still inside.

India is moving rock-climbing rescue teams into action right now. An 11-member squad of medical staff and tunnel specialists landed in Nepal on Saturday. They are flying over Chilime and Langtang to check conditions from the air. This comes after floods killed at least 734 people, according to Nepal's disaster authority.

Local morgues cannot hold everyone. Bodies keep surfacing far downstream as water levels drop. Rojita Adhikari, a freelance journalist, said authorities are overwhelmed. "He said Nepal does not have enough refrigerators to store the dead bodies and identify and test their DNA," she recalled from a press conference with the foreign minister yesterday. Unidentified remains have been sent to 21 hospitals across different districts just to preserve them.

The situation in Tibet is equally grim. Chinese officials reported 16 deaths in Gyirong County by Saturday evening. As Sunday morning broke, 2,498 people remain missing in Nepal alone. That group includes 589 foreigners and 127 Nepali citizens who were traveling with them. There are also 45 army personnel, 27 police officers, and 13 armed police members listed among the missing.

Nepal's Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai confirmed that 19,000 security workers and 16 helicopters are now on the ground searching for survivors. Thousands have been evacuated with help from the army and police. But looking across the border, a different picture emerges in China. Authorities say 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries are still missing there. The list includes 104 Nepalis, 49 Indians, 33 Latvians, 18 Americans, 15 Britons, and six each from Canada and Australia. Other nations represented include Russia, Malaysia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Estonia, France, Ireland, Finland, Lithuania, Portugal, Ukraine, Spain, Hungary, and Kazakhstan.

It is hard to see the full damage on the Chinese side of the border. Foreign journalists are not allowed inside that area right now. We can only piece together what little information we get from official statements. How many more people are trapped in the dark?

We are completely reliant on the government and state media," she said. The official line is clear: teams have been desperately searching the worst-hit area of the port of Gyirong since they arrived late on Friday after days of trekking through the mountains. They claim to have searched at least 90,000 square metres using life monitoring equipment, search dogs and drones. Chinese authorities say hundreds of technical operators are using heavy machinery to slowly repair roads as access remains blocked following flooding and landslides.

What do we know about rescue efforts? Nepal and China are working together to identify missing citizens and foreign nationals. But the work has proven challenging with roads and bridges destroyed. On Sunday morning, water levels in the Trishuli River rose after more rain, prompting residents and rescue workers to seek higher ground, a Nepalese police official said. Al Jazeera's Allawi noted that authorities have not yet moved to the second phase of relief operations, which includes humanitarian assistance and reopening roads, because of the rugged terrain and lack of sufficient resources. He added that Nepal's finance minister Swarnim Wagle estimated losses from the disaster at more than $4bn, while warnings remain in force for potential flooding along rivers in northern Nepal.

Local relief efforts are also very limited because of the difficulty of reaching the affected areas. Dozens of kilometres of roads have been destroyed, as well as bridges over rivers. Al Jazeera's Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the Nepalese capital, said the government has requested specialist help from India and China to fill gaps in its rescue operations. The reason the Nepalese foreign ministry spokesman gave for this decision is that lives are at stake and it is very, very urgent. The reason Nepal initially said they didn't want assistance was they feared the chaos which comes with huge teams being fanned out in different areas.

Nepali journalist Adhikari accused world leaders of not prioritizing the threats posed by the climate crisis. This catastrophe is not Nepal's fault. The country is paying the price for how world leaders have been dealing with climate change. Nepal has had floods and disasters like earthquakes before, but I have never seen anything like what happened on Wednesday. Entire families have been swept away. People are devastated and have lost everything – their property, their security, their lifelines. They have no homes to return to in the flood-affected areas.

China has mobilized 2,100 rescue workers and allocated at least 220 million yuan ($32.7m) to support relief efforts, according to CCTV news. Beijing is also using heavy-lift drones and helicopters to airdrop equipment and supplies to frontline rescuers near the border crossing. International aid has also arrived from the UN, the Red Cross Federation, Australia, India, South Korea and the US.