Niranjan Shrestha and Sibi Arasu
Updated ,first published
Warning: This story contains graphic content.
Thirty-four Australians are among hundreds reported missing after an avalanche of ice and rock triggered massive flash floods that swept through parts of Nepal and China on Wednesday, killing at least 98 people and causing widespread damage to villages and infrastructure.
Officials in Nepal said 403 people, including 341 foreign nationals, were reported missing. Sunil Sharma, a tourism board spokesperson, said 133 were from India on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus. Also missing were 47 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 24 from Canada, he said.
At least 62 missing Nepali citizens were among hundreds of locals trekking in the Gosaikunda Lake area in Rasuwa, coinciding with the local festival of Janai Purnima on Friday, Sharma added. Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told The Associated Press at least 28 police officials were missing.
The prime minister’s office in Nepal reported at least 95 dead.
Neighbouring China has reported at least three people killed and 265 missing in a border community in the country’s Tibet region.
The Bhotekoshi River flooded around 9am on Wednesday (around 1pm AEST), destroying several villages as well as roads and hydropower projects, officials said. They issued warnings to residents of several of Nepal’s districts and asked them to stay away from the banks of Bhotekoshi, Trishuli and Narayani rivers.
Torrential floods swallowed roads, bridges, houses, and power projects in the border areas of Nepal, and triggered a mudslide that hit Gyirong Port, a major land crossing with neighbouring Tibet, cutting roads, communications, and power links to the area.
It is suspected that an earthquake struck the region and triggered an ice-rock avalanche on the Lhende Khola river in Nepal, causing the floods. The river runs through both Nepal and Tibet.
The US Geological Survey had reported a 4.4-magnitude earthquake early Wednesday, about 100 kilometres north of Kathmandu, near the border with China’s autonomous region of Tibet.
Police and military personnel were engaged in rescue efforts, although officials have said rescue helicopters would not be able to land in the affected areas until the waters recede.
“We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue efforts,” said Sasmit Pokharel, a spokesperson for the Nepali government.
China has deployed at least 574 rescuers to the land crossing, and India says it was coordinating closely with Kathmandu on rescue and relief efforts.
People living in low-lying regions were being moved to safer places, and those along the river have been advised to remain alert, as authorities warn that a second flood may occur since a blockage is still lodged upstream.
Flood alerts have also been issued in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which border Nepal, since several rivers flow down the Himalayas into their plains.
The worst-affected area, Rasuwa district, witnessed similar flash floods to those in August last year, when a glacial lake in neighbouring Tibet overflowed as a result of high temperatures in the mountain region. Nine people lost their lives, and critical infrastructure, including a bridge connecting the two countries, was damaged at the time.
Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development say an avalanche from a glacier likely caused Wednesday’s flash flood.
The Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi River, witnessed maximum flooding Wednesday, they said.
“The Lhende Khola has flooded twice in 14 months, this time triggered by an ice rock avalanche from a glacier on the Nepal side that blocked the river and released a sudden surge downstream,” said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at the climate research group.
“In a warming Himalaya, early warning is the first line of adaptation,” he added.
The Himalayan region, which crosses Nepal and several nearby countries including India, is especially vulnerable to heavy rains, floods and landslides because the area is warming up faster than the rest of the world due to human-caused climate change. Research has shown that extreme weather events, including heat waves, heavy rains and melting glaciers, have become more frequent in the region.
Members of the Kathmandu research group found earlier this year that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region are melting at an accelerating rate, with ice loss rates doubling since 2000 primarily due to rising global temperatures and climate change.
AP, Reuters with Josefine Ganko
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