TRISHULI, Nepal/BEIJING, Aug 30 (Reuters) – The death toll in Nepal and Tibet from last week’s catastrophic floods hit 750 on Sunday with 3,044 missing, authorities said, while rescuers moved to higher ground as rain swelled river levels.
Rescue operations have been suspended several times since Friday because of bad weather and concerns that a lake formed across the Nepal-China border by a mudslide from Wednesday’s glacier collapse could trigger fresh flooding after it began overflowing into rivers in Nepal.
The Red Cross estimates that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the disaster, which China has linked to the effects of climate change.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Nepalese counterpart in a Saturday telephone call that the mudslide was their “most severe cross-border disaster” in recent years and that rescue operations were of unprecedented difficulty and complexity, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.
TUNNELS BECOME A FOCUS OF RESCUE EFFORTS
Nepal’s rescue effort is now focused on hundreds of people believed to be trapped in tunnels at hydropower plants after a torrent of ice, rock, mud and debris crashed down Himalayan rivers.
Deaths in Nepal have risen to 734, with 2,498 missing and 7,514 rescued, the nation’s disaster authority said. In China, 16 people had died in Gyirong County as of Saturday evening and 546 were missing, officials in Tibet told a press conference.
Among the 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries missing on the Tibetan side were 104 from Nepal, 49 from neighbouring India, as well as 33 Latvians, 18 Americans and 15 Britons, they said in China’s first breakdown by nationality.
Beijing and Kathmandu are working together to identify missing citizens and foreign nationals, as well as strengthening cooperation in disaster prevention and mitigation, and climate-change response, CCTV said.
Water levels in the Trishuli River rose on Sunday after fresh rain, prompting residents and rescue workers to seek higher ground, Nepalese police told Reuters.
Nepal says it does not need foreign help for general rescue, but Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri said the country needed assistance in such areas as tunnel rescue, DNA testing, refrigerated storage for bodies and forensic identification of decomposed remains.
Indian and Chinese experts are on the ground helping efforts to open tunnels, Chhetri said.
The lake that had formed upstream and threatened rescue operations had largely drained by Saturday evening, CCTV said. But drones detected a landslide late on Saturday 2.8 km (1.7 miles) downstream of the lake, forming a new dam and a fresh pool of water, CCTV said.
The authorities relocated rescue personnel near the Gyirong border crossing to safety, the broadcaster said.
LINK TO ‘LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE’
The flood was “caused by glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming”, CCTV reported, saying it was a “new and prominent feature of cryosphere disasters” on the Tibetan plateau.
The mudslide from the Nepalese side took six to seven minutes to reach the Gyirong border crossing, CCTV said, citing the findings of Chinese scientists. Dramatic surveillance footage shared worldwide showed torrents of water and debris engulfing buildings while people tried to flee.
China has mobilised over 2,100 rescue workers and allocated at least 220 million yuan ($32.7 million) to support relief efforts. It is also providing emergency cash aid, disaster relief supplies, satellite and hydrological data and tunnel rescue experts to Nepal, CCTV said.
China used heavy-lift drones as helicopters began airdropping equipment and supplies to frontline rescuers near the border crossing. Soldiers have used life-detection equipment, drones and a navigation system to continue searching for those still missing.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen and Ethan Wang in Beijing and Adnan Abidi in Trishuli; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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