Nepal flood death toll rises to 359, rescuers search for 1,400 missing people

Residents walk along a muddy road following flash floods on August 27, 2026 in Trishuli, Nepal. Photo by Ezra Acayan /Getty Images

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Rescue teams waded through mud on Thursday, searching for more than 1,400 people missing after flash floods and landslides struck the Nepal-Tibet border, as the death toll rose sharply to at least 362, with entire villages swept away.

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Experts warned of the risk of further floods a day after the devastating tsunami-like wall of freezing water and mud wiped out towns under a torrent of sludge, engulfing homes, smashing bridges and dams, and sweeping vehicles away like toys.

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Many of the missing are foreign tourists, including scores of Hindu pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred snow-capped Mount Kailash.

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According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the disaster was caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a vast flow of icy debris.

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Emergency teams were racing to pluck survivors from affected zones, while Nepali soldiers used sniffer dogs to search for bodies buried under the suffocating dirt.

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“Everything is finished,” Omkar Joshi, a 35-year-old Nepali customs agent rescued from a hilltop in the border town of Timure, told AFP.

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“It is a giant graveyard. All that is left are sand and pebbles, soaked red by human blood.”

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Nepali police said they had recovered 359 bodies.

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Another 910 people, including 517 foreign tourists, were out of contact in the country. Beijing said 100 Chinese citizens are missing in Nepal.

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In China, state media said the “mudslide disaster” at the Gyirong Port in Tibet killed three people, while 558 people, including 260 foreigners, are missing.

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited the area on Thursday, state media said, to oversee “emergency rescue and relief work, and to visit rescue workers and affected people”.

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Li Qipu, a member of China’s paramilitary People’s Armed Police, cited “the instability of a reservoir lake upstream” and “the narrow mountain road” as elements complicating rescue efforts.

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China’s Tibet Autonomous Region is largely inaccessible to foreign journalists.

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A resident carries belongings across a road heavily covered in mud following flash floods on August 27, 2026 in Trishuli, Nepal. Photo by Ezra Acayan /Getty Images

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‘Inland tsunami’

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Prime Minister Balendra Shah, who urged the Himalayan nation to “stand together” hours after the disaster, visited some of the hardest-hit areas on Thursday.

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Shah told local authorities to “provide immediate relief to displaced families” and to open blocked roads, his office said in a statement.

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The foreigners out of contact included Indians and others from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea and the United States, Nepal’s tourism board said.

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The sudden rush of mud and debris was “like an inland tsunami”, travelling nearly 170 kilometres (105 miles) south into Nepal, said environmental historian Ruth Gamble, of Australia’s La Trobe University.

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Rasuwa, in the north of Nepal, was the first district to be affected, but deaths were reported as far south as Chitwan, on the border with India.