Over Three Thousand
The number of people missing in the catastrophic flood that sliced through the border area between Nepal and Tibet exceeded 3'000 on Sunday, as rescuers scoured deep, leg-sucking mud for survivors.
Figures from Nepal and from Chinese authorities in charge of Tibet put the total number of missing just over 3'000, with 750 bodies recovered. Nepal says there are 2'498 people, including hundreds of foreigners, who are out of contact in the country. It reported an updated death toll of 734 people on Sunday. Tibet, an autonomous region of China, was largely inaccessible to foreign journalists, preventing independent reporting on the scale of the disaster. China's state broadcaster CCTV said 546 people were missing and 16 people had been killed, with 261 foreign nationals among those missing.
100 trapped in tunnels
More than 100 workers are believed to be trapped inside multiple hydropower tunnels. The Nepali army inserted a pipe into one of the tunnels at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site late on Saturday and started sending air through it, Minister Sudan Gurung said. But overnight rain and rising river waters hampered rescue efforts.
Those trapped were among 933 missing workers from hydropower projects on the rivers where the torrent of icy debris swept down. India has sent an 11-person specialised team. China has also sent a nine-person tunnel team to help.
Reconstruction could cost billions
Nepal's reconstruction bill could run into "billions of dollars", Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said. "We will do loss and damage research and then we plan, but I am reaching out to our international community for support."
At an army base in the Nepali town of Bidur, a key rescue hub, relatives crowded around lists of rescued people pasted on a wall. "I have come here looking for my son," said Kalka Sharda, scanning the list in desperation. "He was a labourer at the hydropower plant, but I can't find his name, and the authorities are not saying anything."
China's state news agency Xinhua reported that experts said "a glacier on the southern slope of Lirung Peak in Nepal" fractured, triggering an ice-rock avalanche. The torrent plummeted rapidly, forming a massive debris flow that travelled more than 20 kilometres before crashing into Gyirong Port.