The death toll from the flooding that struck the Nepal-China border on August 26 has passed 1,000, authorities in both countries have said, with more than 4,000 people still unaccounted for.
Nepal’s national disaster authority reported 987 deaths on September 1 and 3,916 people missing, of whom 583 were foreign nationals. Chinese authorities put their own toll at 16 in an update issued on August 30.
At least 11,814 people have been rescued, according to Nepalese officials. Helicopters and other aircraft have been used to reach communities cut off after roads and bridges were swept away.
The disaster began with a glacial collapse high in the Himalayas that sent rock, ice and meltwater into the valleys below. The rockfall registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event and the resulting surge destroyed the Gyirong border crossing in Tibet before tearing down a 72km stretch of the Trishuli river in Nepal.
Rescue crews have been working to reach hydropower workers feared trapped inside tunnels filled with mud. Footage released by Nepal’s army showed teams wading through debris-choked shafts by torchlight.
Citizens of at least nine EU member states are among those unaccounted for. Chinese authorities listed 261 missing foreigners from 23 countries in the Tibet Autonomous Region, including 33 Latvians, 10 each from the Netherlands, Estonia, France and Ireland, three Germans and one each from Finland, Lithuania, Portugal, Hungary and Spain, Al Jazeera reported.
The Nepal Tourism Board has said 33 British citizens are also missing, alongside 178 Indians and 90 Americans. Two of three Spaniards initially reported missing have since been located.
The European Commission allocated €2 million in humanitarian aid on August 28 for food, healthcare, clean water and sanitation. It said the money came on top of almost €3 million committed to Nepal earlier in the year for disaster preparedness.
European Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said the floods had “shattered communities already rebuilding from past disasters”.
The EU has also deployed its Rapid Response Coordinator for Asia and activated Copernicus to produce satellite maps of the affected area. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc stood ready to mobilise further European assistance.
The tranche follows other emergency allocations by Brussels this year, among them €10 million for Cuba in July.
Local morgues have run out of space, The Kathmandu Post reported, with bodies recovered as far as 240km downstream in neighbouring India. Nepalese authorities have begun burying hundreds of unidentified victims in a mass grave.
