‘Huge gush of mud’: Survivors tell of escape – and devastating loss – from wall of rock and water

Trishuli, Nepal/Beijing: A wall of mud and rock collapsing into a river on the Himalayan border of Nepal and China triggered catastrophic flooding on the Nepali side, killing at least 160 people with hundreds more missing.

It’s the worst natural disaster to hit Nepal since the 2015 earthquake that killed 9000 and as the situation unfolds , videos of homes, roads and power projects being swept away on both sides of the border point to the number of casualties rising.

As authorities continue the grim task of recovering and trying to identify bodies, survivors are coming to terms with the tragedy.

“It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us. As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher,” said Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor, who was being treated at a small hospital.

“When I saw it enter our home, I tried to grab my wife’s hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud,” said Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor, who was being treated at a small hospital.

“Four or five hours later, a helicopter came to rescue me. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.”

It’s an experience shared by many survivors. Kalpana Malla, who saw her father, mother, sister and sister’s children caught up in the floodwaters, told the BBC her family didn’t stand a chance against the fury of the flood.

“They could not escape, there was no chance at all. This flood took everything, but my son and I climbed the rooftop of a house and survived somehow,” she said.

Another survivor described being saved by clinging to a mango tree as he watched the house where he had been working disappear.

Twelve British tourists had just crossed through Gyirong – a border land crossing between the two countries – on a tour when a mud-filled wave more than 20 metres high hit, London’s Telegraph reported . They glanced over their shoulders – then began to run for their lives as the wall of water surged towards them down the narrow valley.

The tour was led by Alpine Eco Trek, a local service that arranges regular 10-day trips from the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu to the Tibetan mountain of Kailash.

“Both guides went offline at 8.42am,” said Ram Kumar Adhikari, the manager of the tour company. “The whole area was swept away by the flood. Even the Tibet immigration office,” he said.

The fate of the 12, which included “young girls”, remains unknown. They were among the hundreds of tourists who remain unaccounted for, according to Nepalese authorities.

A 61-year-old British woman and her 60-year-old sister were following the same route as the Alpine group when the mudslide struck. Leaf Holidays, the organiser of their trip, said it had lost contact with all 54 of its pilgrims and staff.