Rescuers race to find thousands missing after Nepal-China glacier collapse

Rescue teams from Nepal and China worked tirelessly on Sunday to locate thousands of people missing after a massive glacier collapse sent a devastating mudslide sweeping across the Himalayas, with challenging weather and rising water levels hampering their efforts. The death toll climbed to 750 by morning, with over 3,000 people still unaccounted for on both sides of the border.

The Red Cross estimated that more than 90,000 people had been affected by the disaster, which Chinese authorities attributed to the impacts of climate change. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi informed his Nepalese counterpart that this cross-border disaster was their most severe in years, emphasizing the unprecedented difficulty and complexity of the rescue operations.

Nepal reported 734 deaths, 2,498 missing, and 7,514 rescued, while China stated 16 fatalities in Gyirong County and 546 people missing, with 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries unaccounted for in Tibet. The disaster has complicated rescue operations due to the rugged terrain and rising water in the Trishuli River following fresh rainfall.

Rescuers have had to suspend operations multiple times due to bad weather and concerns over additional flooding from a lake formed by the disaster threatening downstream areas. Authorities in Nepal are seeking international assistance for specialized tasks such as tunnel rescue, DNA testing, and forensic identification of decomposed remains.

Chinese and Indian experts are aiding in tunnel rescue efforts. As bodies began decomposing, authorities in Nepal initiated mass burials of unidentified victims, discovering that over half of the recovered bodies were beyond recognition. Chinese authorities mobilized over 2,100 rescue workers, allocated $32.7 million for relief efforts, and employed life-detection equipment to search for the missing.