Landslide-formed lake threatens flood-hit Nepal-Tibet border region

A lake formed by a landslide on the Nepal-Tibet border has started to overflow, endangering areas devastated by a flash flood two days ago and forcing a temporary halt to rescue efforts, authorities in China and Nepal have said.

Residents in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, on the border with Tibet, were seen rushing up hillsides to escape any surge in the river level, according to witnesses. Authorities in Nepal had stopped rescue operations for at least 90 minutes, an army officer said.

The risk of the lake bursting had earlier prompted all Chinese rescue personnel and vehicles to withdraw to a safe area, the state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday.

The lake formed after a wall of mud and debris hit the border hub of Gyirong in Tibet on Wednesday, causing catastrophic flash floods that thundered down valleys and obliterated entire villages.

The confirmed death toll from the glacier collapse on Friday rose to 469 in Nepal, with more than 1,300 more missing there and in Tibet.

The flood on Wednesday had ripped through villages and valleys, destroying power stations, roads and bridges along a route that links Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet and is popular with trekkers and pilgrims. Of those missing, at least 540 are foreigners.

In its wake, debris had formed the barrier lake that was threatening further flooding. China mobilised an eight-member engineering team to conduct aerial surveys and 3D modelling of the lake on Thursday and by Friday, its reservoir had topped 2.5m cubic metres of water, up from the estimated 1.5-2 m cubic metres the engineering team recorded a day ago.

The international community is scrambling to get aid into flood-stricken parts of Nepal and Tibet but search and rescue efforts have been complicated by the destruction of dozens of bridges and miles of roads in the mountainous region, which is popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

More than 500 foreign citizens were among 826 people missing in Nepal, police and tourism officials said. Among those unaccounted for were 177 from India, 90 from the US, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada. Chinese state media said at least 558 were missing on the Tibet side of the border, of whom at least 260 were foreign nationals.

Scant information has emerged from Chinese authorities about the scale of the destruction. Tibet is the most tightly controlled part of China even under normal circumstances. Only brief, state-controlled media reports about the floods have been allowed to circulate in China and the authorities have confirmed only three deaths there. Chinese reports have focused on rescue efforts.

In Nepal, army helicopter rescue teams were earlier on Friday working to rescue about 100 people trapped inside a tunnel at a hydropower project swamped by the devastating flood.

“Our focus is in search and rescue of people … some people are trapped in the tunnel of Trishuli 3A hydropower project,” said Nepal army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet.

“Two helicopters have been dispatched but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel. Relief efforts are also under way to provide the rescued people what they need.”

The prime minister’s office said the army was working in tough conditions and had already rescued 350 workers and local people who were trapped in the tunnel amid the risky conditions.

Rescue teams have reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border. Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for advanced medical care and more than 100 people were rescued by Nepali army personnel in helicopters.

CCTV said that 499 Chinese nationals and 555 foreigners had been transported out of the disaster zone as of Friday.