Nepal-China border flood death toll rises to 162

Nepalese authorities said Thursday that the death toll from devastating flash floods along the border with China has climbed to 162, with nearly 900 people still missing after a Himalayan glacier collapsed into a river below, according to local media reports.

The disaster was triggered when a large section of ice broke away from a glacier roughly 20 kilometers northeast of the Rasuwa-Rasuwagadhi border crossing, sending tons of ice and rock cascading into the Bhotekoshi River below, the Himalayan Times reported.

The collapse destroyed 19 bridges and a 40-kilometer stretch of a key highway — severing transportation routes and complicating rescue efforts in the mountainous terrain, officials said.

Hundreds missing including foreign tourists

Chitwan district in Bagmati province recorded the highest death toll with 64 fatalities, followed by Dhading with 27 and Nawalparasi East with 22, according to preliminary government figures.

The missing include 54 tourists from the United States, 34 from Australia and 33 from the United Kingdom, alongside 28 Nepalese police officers who were caught in the deluge, authorities confirmed.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said the floods caused "extreme damage" in several districts, cautioning that officials were still working to verify the full extent of the destruction.

International aid flows as Nepal mobilizes response

The Nepalese Army and private helicopter operators have airlifted 114 people to safety while continuing search missions backed by drones, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said, advising stranded residents to light fires to signal their locations.

Khanal told Indian broadcaster NDTV that "close to 300 Indians have been reported missing and the government is trying to establish contact with them," adding that foreign nationals frequently travel through the affected area for the Masarovar Yatra pilgrimage.

India has dispatched a second plane carrying 37.5 tonnes of humanitarian assistance including medicines and food packets, while China and the World Bank have pledged financial support for reconstruction efforts, Nepal's Finance Ministry announced.

China reports casualties in Tibet

Across the border in China's Gyirong County, at least three people were killed and 558 remained missing after the mudslide struck Gyirong Port in the Xizang Autonomous Region, Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

A directing group from the Chinese People's Liberation Army was dispatched to coordinate joint rescue operations, while the State Grid Xizang Electric Power Company assembled emergency supplies in Gyirong town, the main crossing point for traffic between the two nations.

China's Ministry of Emergency Management sent more than 100 firefighters and rescue personnel to the disaster zone aboard chartered planes that arrived in Xigaze city early Thursday morning.