At least 469 people have died, and at least 1,500 people remain missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region after a glacial collapse sent a mountain of mud and rock into a Himalayan river, triggering catastrophic flooding across local towns and valleys, authorities in Kathmandu have said.
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authorities → die → Kathmandu
The devastating Bhotekoshi flood struck the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border region, with some of the worst damage in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, immediately south of the Chinese border.
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flood → strike → border
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it → miss → floods
reports from hospital in flood-hit Nepal
Television images showed collapsed homes, floating cars and a metal bridge being washed away, while witnesses said the waters engulfed entire villages.
Search and rescue teams have been wading through the region looking for victims and missing people, but efforts have proven challenging since many roads and bridges have also been damaged due to the flood.
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roads → report → flood
Here’s what we know about the latest rescue efforts and the victims:
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we → ’ → efforts
What happened?
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What → happen → ?
Officials initially believed that a magnitude 4.4 earthquake could have triggered the downstream floods on Wednesday morning.
However, several experts and the United States Geological Survey have confirmed that “the seismic event” was a consequence of “a glacial collapse and debris flow that caused subsequent catastrophic impacts downstream” – rather than the other way around.
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that → believe → way
A glacial collapse is the detachment of a large mass of glacier ice from its bed – sometimes involving millions of cubic metres of ice, rock, and water – that can transform into a highly mobile ice-rich avalanche or debris flow.
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that → involve → avalanche
This collapse is not a formally defined scientific term in glaciology, but is widely used to describe the event.
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collapse → define → event
Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said the “glacier-inclusive flood” occurred in the Lhende Khola (river) due to “an ice-rock avalanche on the Nepali side”, according to Prakash Pokhrel, a geologist at the authority.
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flood → say → authority
The initial surge entered the Lhende Khola — which feeds into the Bhotekoshi and then the Trishuli rivers — carrying floodwaters south through Nepal.
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which → enter → Nepal
Water levels in the Trishuli reportedly rose by as much as 9 metres (27ft) in just 30 minutes.
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levels → rise → minutes
What do we know about victims?
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we → know → victims
According to Nepalese police, the death toll from the floods as of Friday morning rose to 469 people.
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toll → accord → people
At least three people have also died in the neighbouring Tibet region.
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people → die → region
Official nationality counts for the dead are still pending.
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counts → pende → dead
Nepalese daily The Kathmandu Post reported that the bodies of the dead swept away by the floods are turning up far downstream, and local morgues are running out of space to store the bodies until they are identified.
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they → report → bodies
But authorities have begun finding alternatives, like using buildings in the country’s health and science academies as temporary morgues.
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authorities → begin → morgues
As the death toll continues to rise, the Post also reported on Friday that authorities in Nepal are working on solutions to bury unidentified bodies by assigning a tag number to each body, which will retain burial information.
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which → continue → information
What do we know about the missing?
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we → know → missing
As of Friday morning, more than 1,500 people were missing in Nepal and China’s Tibet region.
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people → miss → Nepal
Apart from Nepali nationals, Nepal’s Department of Tourism said on Thursday night that 668 tourists from 34 countries had been out of contact since Wednesday morning, most of them on trekking expeditions.
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most → say → expeditions
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry also said 100 Chinese nationals were among the missing in Nepal.
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nationals → say → Nepal
In Tibet’s Gyirong county, 558 people are reported missing, including 260 foreign nationals, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
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people → report → CCTV
Sneha Sudhir was one of 10 women whose husbands had set out from Nepal on a trek to Tibet’s Mount Kailash when the region was struck by disaster.
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region → set → disaster
The men, all from northern Virginia, are among dozens of Americans missing.
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men → miss → Americans
“Where are they?” Sudhir told the Reuters news agency tearfully from her home in Chantilly, Virginia, on Thursday.
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Sudhir → tell → Thursday
Sudhir said the women were supporting each other and reaching out to officials, politicians and friends and family in the United States and India, hoping for updates.
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women → say → updates
“Everybody is taking turns in shedding their tears, wiping it off and getting back to work,” she said.
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she → take → work
In India’s Bhopal city, Devika Adhikari told the India Today television channel that her family was anxiously waiting for news about her elder brother, younger brother and two sisters-in-law, who are missing in Nepal.
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who → tell → Nepal
She said the family last spoke to them at about 9.30am [03:45 GMT] on the day of the disaster.
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family → say → disaster
“In our last conversation, my elder brother told us that everyone’s lives were in danger and that they had hidden in the mountains.
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they → tell → mountains
He also asked us to take care of the children,” she said.
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she → ask → children
What do we know about search and rescue efforts?
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we → know → efforts
Rescuers in Nepal have deployed helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands of people cut off in a rugged mountainous area popular with trekkers and pilgrims travelling between Lhasa in Tibet and Kathmandu.
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Rescuers → deploy → Tibet
But search and rescue operations are proving to be a “massive challenge”.
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operations → prove → ?
“Getting to the affected areas … to try and recover the survivors” is proving to be extremely difficult, because the roads and bridges there have suffered extensive damage, said Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
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Fernandez → get → capital
A mix of government and private helicopters have “been drafted to fly into the areas to try to bring as many survivors as possible” to hospitals to receive treatment for injuries that doctors say include broken ribcages and skin burns, said Fernandez.
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Fernandez → draft → ribcages
Army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet said helicopters were dropping tents, food and medicine, provided by neighbouring India, into the hardest-hit districts.
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helicopters → say → districts
More than 5,000 army and police rescue personnel have joined the rescue effort, he said.
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he → join → effort
…and 15 more, not listed.
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