Death Toll Rises to 1,453 as Floods and Mudslides Leave Over 6,600 Missing Along Nepal-China Border
Flash floods and mudslides that began on Aug. 26 have killed 1,453 people and left more than 6,600 missing on both sides of the Nepal-China border.
A glacier fracture on Mount Langtang Lirung on Aug. 26 set off an ice-rock avalanche that evolved into a huge debris flow, sweeping valleys along the Nepal-China border. The resulting flash floods and mudslides have claimed 1,453 lives, according to the latest figures, and left more than 6,600 people unaccounted for. Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority says 1,410 people are dead, 13,756 have been rescued, and 6,145 remain missing, including 587 foreigners.
In China's Xizang autonomous region, the death count stands at 43, with 519 missing, among them 261 foreign nationals. The catastrophe hit the districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and Kavre, as well as the Kathmandu Valley, and covered the Gyirong border crossing in debris.
Why it matters
The disaster highlights severe climate-related risks in the Himalayas and the urgent need for cross-border emergency coordination.
How this story developed
- Aug 28 Nepalese army pulls survivors from flooded hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa
- Sep 3 Death toll rose above 1,270 and bodies recovered reached 1,252.
- Sep 3 After a deadly flash flood on the China-Nepal border, Chinese authorities have tightly controlled information, emphasizing rescue efforts over the identities of the dead and missing.
- Sep 5 A Canadian citizen missing after the floods was located safe.
- Sep 5 After more than a week of searching, a 64-year-old woman was rescued from a mud-filled house and a Chinese worker was saved from a deep tunnel, rekindling optimism amid Nepal's deadliest floods in a decade.
- Sep 5 Authorities suspended 24 passenger ferry routes and closed Fuzhou theme parks.
- Sep 6 Flash floods ripped a three‑storey building in Xianyou County and drones delivered supplies to a flooded school in Wenzhou.
- Sep 6 Officials are pursuing higher‑ground reconstruction of the school with Indian aid.
- Sep 7 Chinese authorities barred foreign journalists from entering the Tibet Autonomous Region.
- Sep 7 Chinese worker Lu Haitao was rescued from a 225‑metre hydropower tunnel and air‑lifted to a hospital.
- Sep 7 The United Nations launched a $50 million appeal to aid flood‑affected residents.
- Sep 9 Two hydropower workers were rescued after being trapped for nine days.
- Sep 14 UN assistant secretary‑general Kanni Wignaraja warned of expanding flood risk across the Himalayas.
- Sep 17 A new UN Environment Programme review labeled glacier melt an “immediate” climate risk.
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