Rescuers ploughed on with their search for survivors of deadly floods and landslides that struck Nepal and Tibet, with the threat of new torrents complicating their gargantuan task.
Emergency teams have recovered 482 bodies after a tsunami-like wall of water and mud crashed down on Wednesday, burying homes, smashing bridges and sweeping away vehicles.
More than 1,400 people are missing, including trekkers in the Himalayas and scores of Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred snow-capped Mount Kailash.
Nepal’s police announced a new death toll of at least 547 people.
Chinese state media has confirmed at least five dead on the Tibet side, taking the total overall to 552.
The US Geological Survey said the disaster – the deadliest for Nepal since 2015 – was caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a vast flow of icy debris.
The deluge of ice and mud also caused huge pools of water to form, with one of these formations becoming a direct threat to emergency workers scouring the region for survivors.
Nepali police urged all rescuers to “immediately move to a safe location”, saying it had received information that “a water dam has burst again on the Tibetan side”.
Separately in Tibet, China had earlier Friday paused its rescue operation at the hardest-hit area of Gyirong over the risk of renewed flooding, before later saying the threat had eased.
CCTV reported that a lake formed by immense piles of debris began overflowing toward where rescue teams were headed, but later said the water level of the pool was dropping so “the risk is gradually decreasing”.
Rescue operations were therefore “proceeding in an orderly manner”, it added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who chaired a meeting on rescue efforts, offered Beijing’s help to Nepal’s emergency operations.
“China is willing to actively assist Nepal in its rescue efforts and provide support and aid to the best of its ability,” Xi said in a message to Nepal’s president.
Emergency teams had been racing to retrieve survivors from affected zones, where the widespread devastation meant food and water supplies were running out.
In India, authorities said they had recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be flood victims.
There are 977 people, including 517 foreign tourists, who are out of contact in Nepal.
Indians make up the largest number of missing foreigners, while the United States said 90 of its citizens were out of contact.
In Tibet, officials say 558 people are missing and five died.Authorities also said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 Chinese residents.
Scores of Hindu devotees from across the world are among those missing on the border, as many were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash on the Chinese side.
Sivaranjani Muthunathan was travelling by bus with 56 others towards the Chinese border when they became stuck in what they thought was a traffic jam.
“Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us,” Muthunathan, 46, said on Friday, showing a phone video she recorded of a torrent surging towards her. — AFP
