Death toll in Nepal flood reaches 469, police say

The death toll from a flash flood that occurred earlier this week in Nepal has reached 469, Nepal police said on Friday.

Rescue teams using heavy machinery dug through mud and debris in towns devastated by the floods as hopes of finding survivors faded, and officials worked to reduce the risk of fresh flooding.

1,000 more people went missing in Nepal and in neighbouring Tibet, near where a glacier collapse on Wednesday morning sent a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris cascading through Himalayan mountain river systems.

The flood ripped through villages and valleys, destroying power stations, roads and bridges along a route that links Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet and is popular with trekkers and pilgrims. Of those missing, at least 540 are foreigners.

Authorities in Nepal used helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands cut off in towns and valleys, while emergency services, some using sniffer dogs, recovered dozens of bodies swept down into the plains.

Dibga Tamang was among the last people rescued from the hard-hit town of Rasuwa on Thursday, airlifted along with three others to an army camp in Nuwakot.

"All of our people have gone. They are dead," Tamang said. "I have no one left waiting for me. Everything and everyone is gone. The end."

The sheer amount of water and debris stirred up now risks triggering a further disaster.

Nepal's disaster management authority warned that a lake formed by debris blocking the Bhotekoshi River at the flood site was rising and at risk of bursting, while on the other side of the border China said that some 3 million cubic metres of water, the equivalent of about 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools, was expected to flow into an already dammed lake over the next three days.

There is a high risk the lake could breach, with peak flow expected around September 1, Chinese state media said, citing the water resources ministry.

"The volume of water is continuing to increase, and so is the risk," Zhu Jinfeng, a researcher at the ministry's hydrology department, told state broadcaster CCTV.

TORRENT TORE THROUGH BORDER CROSSING

Chinese rescuers had yet to reach the worst-hit area on the Chinese side of the border, the Gyirong border crossing, by Thursday evening, state media reports indicated, as crews worked to clear debris from the key access road leading to the area.

The Gyirong border port has a key role in China's Belt and Road network linking the country to South Asia, with logistics zones and parking lots built there in the past decade.

Footage on Wednesday showed enormous torrents of muddy water and debris tearing through structures in the border crossing area within seconds and engulfing people trying to flee.

The tally of missing in Tibet's Gyirong County was 558, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Thursday, including 260 foreign nationals. So far, just three people have been confirmed dead on the Chinese side.