Death toll rises in Nepal-China border disaster as lake poses new flood
threat
[August 28, 2026]
By NIRANJAN SHRESTHA and SHRISTI KAFLE
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescuers pulled out survivors caked in dark
brown mud and helicopters lifted stranded people to safety Friday as
Nepal and China raced to respond to catastrophic flash floods that
killed more than 470 people and left more than 1,500 missing.
Nepal authorities said the death toll there rose to 469, injured people
were taken to hospitals and helicopters carried more than 3,000 people
to safety. In contrast on the Chinese side, there was little information
on survivors, although the death toll rose to five Friday, as state
media showed evacuations of villages and leaders' efforts to direct
relief efforts.
China's state media previously said 558 people were missing and Nepal’s
disaster management authority said Friday that 977 people were missing.
Hundreds of them were foreigners in the area to work, trek or make a
pilgrimage to a sacred peak.
Authorities warn of further flooding from barrier lake
Nepal police issued a fresh alert Friday after receiving information
that a dam on the Tibet side has burst. Security personnel and rescue
and relief workers were told to stay on high alert and immediately move
to a safe location if necessary. It is unclear if the dam is related to
the flooding concern from a barrier lake that formed after the initial
flash floods, high up in the Chinese side of the Himalayan mountains.
Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told The Associated Press
that the rescue operation was continuing but with high alert. “It hasn’t
stopped.”
Nepali and Chinese authorities earlier warned of further flooding from
the barrier lake that formed after Wednesday’s disaster and was already
overflowing. They urged people in potentially affected areas to move to
safer ground.
Although Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported Friday morning that the
lake’s barrier was more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Gyirong Port,
the hard-hit border crossing with Nepal, it said that the risk of
flooding was high.
CCTV said the lake was at an elevation of 2,950 meters (9,680 feet),
about 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above Gyirong Port.
Thousands of people have been evacuated, others await rescue
Nepali Army rescuers were working to help people trapped in a hydropower
tunnel in Rasuwa, part of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project.
In video from the scene, rescuers half-pulled, half-pushed the man
covered in dark brown mud out of the tunnel. He was one of likely dozens
trapped in the tunnel.
Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet told The Associated Press
the focus was on survivors.
“It is complicated to find the entry and exit points of the tunnel
because everything has been covered by mud,” Basnet said. “Our first
priority is rescuing the stranded people.”
Nepal’s disaster management authority said 3,253 people had been
airlifted by helicopter from the disaster area. Survivors, including
injured people, were taken to Kathmandu and other locations.
Some felt the ground shake, then saw a ‘black storm’
Scientists who’ve studied satellite images said bedrock underneath a
glacier high in the Himalayan region had collapsed, taking part of the
glacier with it. The rockfall was so extreme, it reached a magnitude 5.2
seismic measurement. The rocks and melted water then swelled the rivers
in the valleys below, causing a torrent of water that swept buildings,
bridges and earth downstream in Tibet and Nepal.
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Army soldiers help a family disembark from a helicopter after they
are rescued from an area affected by flash flooding in Nepal's
Nuwakot district, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar
Singh)
Customs officer Karbir Gaire was among some of the survivors in
Timure, the closest Nepalese village to the border with China.
Gaire reached his office around 8 a.m. Wednesday and was busy
working on his computer when he first felt the ground shake.
“Right after the shake, I noticed a black storm coming towards us,"
he recalled from Kathmandu, where he is back with family. "We all
immediately started running out, and within a few seconds, we were
climbing uphill on the opposite side of our office building. I think
those 10 or so seconds saved some of us.”
Gaire doesn’t remember exactly how many people were in the office
when the disaster struck, but 15 colleagues have gone missing. “It
was like a Hollywood movie scene. I don’t call it a flood, it was a
tsunami.”
He described Timure as a vibrant place filled with government
offices, hotels, cafes, banks, primary schools, tea shops and
residential buildings, where more than 1,500 people were living.
Families around the world hear the news of loved ones
Rajan Tamang, a restaurant owner in New York City, said he learned
from family in Kathmandu that his mother and sister were among those
who died, while many other relatives and friends remained missing.
“My family was just waking up, and they didn’t even get any
information, and suddenly this flood came. Some of them are missing,
some of them lost their life and only a few is alive,” he told The
Associated Press after a vigil in New York.
Some of the missing may have been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash
in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others.
Vishnuram Ramaswamy, who works at a private company in the southern
Indian city of Puducherry, said that he last spoke to his mother and
two sisters who were on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash on Wednesday
morning at 9 a.m.
“My mother said they were on their way towards the border area and
said they’ll reach their hotel and call us,” he said. “This was the
last we spoke to them. They have been unreachable since.”
Ramaswamy said he’s in constant contact with Nepal and Indian
government officials as well as the travel agencies who arranged his
family’s trip but has not received any updates about their
whereabouts so far.
“This was the first time they had gone on this pilgrimage and it was
something my mother always wanted to do,” he said.
Nepal's tourism board has said that among the missing are more than
500 foreigners.
About 90 Americans were unaccounted for. U.S. President Donald Trump
said the flooding was terrible to see, and he told reporters in the
Oval Office he offered to provide Nepalese leaders “anything they
want.”
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