Nepal-China Resume Flood Rescue as Death Toll Exceeds 600

Search and rescue teams returned to the Nepal-Tibet border region on Saturday after a pause driven by fears of a second catastrophe. The immediate toll had already grown staggering: Nepal's police confirmed 626 dead, with the country's disaster authority accounting for at least 1,924 people missing. Across the border in Tibet, Chinese authorities reported seven confirmed deaths and 558 people unaccounted for. The numbers were still climbing, officials warned, as rescue workers pushed into areas still isolated by collapsed roads and deep mud.

The disaster began Wednesday morning when a section of glacier fractured high in the Himalayas at roughly 5,200 metres. The collapse sent roughly 1,200 metres of ice, rock, and debris cascading downward until it struck the Lende River with tremendous force. The impact created a surge that raced south through three Nepalese districts—Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading—with such velocity that it raised the Trishuli River by nine metres in just thirty minutes. The US Geological Survey initially suspected an earthquake had triggered the event, but later revised its assessment: the seismic signal they recorded came from the landslide itself, not from tectonic movement.

Nepal's government, recognizing the scale of the emergency, made an unusual request. Officials asked India and China to deploy specialist rescue teams—units trained in tunnel extraction and other technical recovery methods—to supplement domestic efforts. The request marked a shift in strategy. Initially, Nepal had declined outside assistance, concerned that large international teams fanning across the disaster zone would create logistical chaos. But as the scope of the crisis became clear, the foreign ministry spokesman explained that lives took precedence over coordination concerns. The specialist teams were expected to arrive later Saturday.

The immediate danger, however, was not yet past. The glacier's collapse had created a new lake at the collapse site, and that lake was rising. The barrier holding it back consisted of loose debris that had tumbled into place just two days earlier—material with, as one glacial-hazards scientist put it, "not much holding it." Alton Byers, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, told Al Jazeera that the dam was highly unstable. The temporary halt to rescue operations reflected genuine concern that another surge could sweep through the valleys below. Once officials determined the lake's immediate risks were manageable, teams resumed their work, though the threat remained.

Byers noted that the safest outcome would be a natural, gradual drainage of the lake. Chinese crews, he suggested, might also attempt to lower the water level manually using hand tools and other methods—a technique that has been deployed in other regions vulnerable to glacial lake outburst floods. Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited the disaster zone in Gyirong on Thursday, and President Xi Jinping convened a meeting ordering officials to develop rescue plans grounded in scientific assessment and to intensify monitoring of glacial lakes across the region.

International assistance had begun arriving from multiple countries and organizations: India, the United Nations, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Australia, South Korea, and the United States all sent aid. Yet officials cautioned that the death toll would continue to rise as rescue workers reached communities still cut off from the outside world. The full scope of the disaster remained unknown, hidden behind washed-out roads and accumulations of mud that had yet to be cleared.