Nepal rescuers search for survivors of devastating flood; 162 dead

Rescuers in Nepal used helicopters on Thursday to scour for hundreds still missing after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a river on the Himalayan border with China’s Tibet, sending catastrophic floods through ​towns and valleys, killing 162.

More than 400 foreigners were among 579 tourists missing , Nepal tourism officials said, after the disaster swept a region thronged by trekkers and pilgrims, while police ‌said they expected the death toll to rise beyond 162.

“This will go up, as we have resumed the search and more bodies are expected to be recovered,” police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told Reuters.

Among the missing tourists, 47 were from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 24 from Canada, Sunil Sharma, a spokesperson for Nepal’s tourism board, told the Associated Press news agency.

The tally of missing in the mudslide disaster in Tibet’s Gyirong county was 558, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said ​on Thursday, including 260 foreign nationals, but it was not immediately clear if the two nations’ figures overlapped.

Verified videos showed crushing masses of water and debris sweeping away dozens of people at a ​border crossing in Gyirong, with homes, roads and power projects washed away further downstream in Nepal.

“It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us, said Keshav ⁠Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor, being treated in hospital.

“As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher.

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.” A helicopter ferried him to safety four hours later.

“My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud,” he added.

“She’s gone.” Another survivor said he saved himself by clinging to a ​mango tree as he watched the house where he had been working disappear.

EMERGENCY DELIVERIES BEGIN In the hardest-hit districts, helicopters are dropping tents, food and other emergency supplies provided by neighbouring India, said Raja Ram Basnet, a spokesperson for Nepal’s army.

Early reports from Nepali officials suggested an earthquake in the area could have caused the lower part of a glacier to collapse and trigger the floods.