Rescuers in China and Nepal are still battling on Saturday to locate thousands of people missing days after a deadly wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan region, engulfing villages.

The number of missing soared past 2,400 on Friday as emergency teams said they had recovered 586 bodies – with Indian authorities in Uttar Pradesh finding 10 drowning victims in rivers flowing from Nepal.

In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal's disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to a missing persons' list already including trekkers and pilgrims to the sacred Mount Kailash in China's Xizang Autonomous Region.

Those that made it out say they have lost everything and now face an agonising wait to discover the fate of missing loved ones, and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing.

That hope manifested for Matti Maya Tamang, ⁠28, who was reunited with her eight-year-old son Zoyal Ghale ⁠on Friday after fearing that he and his brother had died when their school was destroyed.

Ghale escaped by running into a forest and climbing trees as the flood swept through. He was later found with a broken leg and cuts to his face and airlifted to a hospital, where journalists found him clutching two 10-rupee notes given to him by police to coax him to accompany them ⁠to seek medical treatment.

"I felt ‌my life was back," said Tamang, who also found her younger son alive.

"All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left," survivor Buddhi Ram Dangol said.

Surveillance camera footage from the Gyirong border crossing complex in China showed huge torrents of water and debris engulfing buildings and people trying to flee.

Only on Friday were rescuers able to reach that area. Media reported that the Chinese team of 21 rescuers and a search-and-rescue dog crossed mountains and valleys and used ropes to navigate forests and cliffs after roads to the complex, hemmed in by steep Himalayan slopes, were destroyed.

"There was no road... it was all virgin forest and sheer cliffs," rescue worker Zou Mingqi said. At the complex, "as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but ruins."

News agency Xinhua reported early on Saturday that two villagers had been rescued in the area.

The trauma of Wednesday's catastrophe has been "enormous", and up to 93,000 people may have been affected, the Red Cross said, with the death toll expected to rise.

The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes to form, and one of these formations has become a direct threat to emergency workers scouring the region for survivors.

Water and debris from the lake began overflowing into the Lhende Khola and Trishuli rivers, leading to rescue operations being suspended for about three hours in Nepal and, according to mainland broadcaster CCTV, all Chinese rescue personnel and vehicles to withdraw ⁠as well. Both resumed rescue operations after the threat eased.

Compounding the search for the missing have been fears of further flooding in affected areas, where the widespread devastation meant food and water supplies were running out.

On the Nepali side of the border, the military located people trapped in the tunnel of the Trishuli 3A hydropower project, where they were working to find a way in to extract the survivors.

Some 350 workers and residents have been brought to safety from the site, army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said, but efforts were ongoing to rescue more than a hundred trapped in the same area.

Nepal reported a death toll of 579 people on Friday.

There are 1,924 people, including 517 foreigners, who are out of contact in Nepal, the disaster authority said. The previous missing figure was 977.

Across the border in China, seven people died and 554 remain missing, Xinhua reported early on Saturday.

Authorities also said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists and 499 residents.

Nepal is continuing to monitor two barrier lakes upstream of the flood zone, with an official warning that flood risks will persist until both lakes fully drain.

Satellite imagery showed the second lake growing larger with no visible outlet, raising concerns that water ‌pressure could still be building.

Xinhua said the first barrier lake was reducing in size, citing analysis by the Ministry of Water Resources. A Chinese government geohazards expert warned, however, that the lake may be unstable and that over 100 glacial ⁠lakes scattered throughout the area could pose a threat.

The United Nations and its partners were scaling up relief supplies, with 20,000 households estimated to need food assistance and more than 50,000 people emergency water and support, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

A South Korean rapid response team in Kathmandu has not been deployed because Nepal does not have a plan to accept foreign rescue yet, the foreign ministry in Seoul ⁠said.

The Kathmandu Post reported that China, India, the United States, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had asked the government to allow their search-and-rescue teams to assist. (AFP & Reuters)



Edited by Robert Kemp