NEPAL: Massive flooding killed eight people in Nepal on Wednesday (Aug 26) as Chinese state media reported “major casualties” from a mudslide at a Tibet trade hub on China’s side of the nations’ shared border.
According to a report from AP, hundreds of people were also reported missing.
The report also quoted officials saying that 384 tourists, including 291 from countries including India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, were reported missing as a result of the flash flood.
Images shared by Nepali police showed floodwater surging through a river, sweeping away houses in its path, while AFP images depicted the top floor of a house sticking out from muddy soil.
“So far, eight bodies have been found. Rescue operations are underway,” Nepal police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle told AFP.
Videos shared by Nepal police and others on social media showed torrents of muddy water crashing through mountain valleys in the Himalayan district bordering China.
“I witnessed the flood sweep away eight or nine trucks, along with houses and people,” Suman Chalise, a 34-year-old teacher, told AFP in Nuwakot district.
“It was absolutely heart-wrenching. I had not witnessed such devastation before.”
The police spokesman told AFP earlier that authorities did not know the extent of the damage but said they had “alerted people who are staying near the riverside to relocate”.
The Nepal Army said it had deployed helicopters and disaster response personnel to the affected area.
The Nepal Electricity Authority said about 430 megawatts of production capacity, including from hydropower and solar facilities, has been damaged.
“The disaster has damaged the production, transmission and distribution facilities of the Authority … resulting in disruption of electricity supply,” it said.
Sarthak Shrestha, a remote sensing and geo-information analyst at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), said a preliminary assessment showed “no anomalies” from China’s side of the border.
“We believe a rock-ice avalanche occurred in Nepal, blocking the Lhende River and causing the cascading flood event,” he told AFP.