Nepal, China warn of fresh flood risks as lake threatens to burst

Officials in Nepal’s Rasuwa district have received a notice saying a lake has broken its banks, two days after a flash flood hit the region, Narendra Pariyar, the most senior bureaucrat of the district, said on Friday.

Nepal and China had both warned earlier of fresh risks of flooding in the Himalayas as a lake that developed across their border because of debris from the flash flood threatened to burst.

“We can see that the level of water in the river is rising,” he said, adding that it is unclear how high the water level is at present.

Authorities in Nepal said they had stopped rescue operations for the next 90 minutes.

Helicopter rescue operations in the flooded district were stopped, and locals were seen rushing up the hill, according to a Reuters witness.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV also warned that a dammed lake upstream of the Gyirong border port had begun to overflow.

The formation of a barrier lake was captured in aerial footage by a Chinese rescue team on Thursday, showing masses of brown water accumulating in a basin with no visible outlet.

The water had already submerged bushes and trees and appeared to push against a barrier of debris and stones at the time.

Rescuers and residents on the lower banks in Nepal had already been directed to move to higher ground, and all Chinese personnel and vehicles had also withdrawn to safer areas as risks of the lake bursting and potential secondary disasters such as mountain collapses and avalanches intensified.

The confirmed death toll in Nepal after the flash flood that struck its border areas and neighbouring Tibet on Wednesday has risen to 469 people, with almost 1 000 more missing there.

The glacier collapse had sent a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris cascading through Himalayan Mountain river systems.

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