Summary

  • The number of people missing in Nepal after the massive flash flood on Wednesday has risen to 4,247 - with at least 903 people known to have died

  • The number of missing is a sharp rise from 2,502, which was announced on Sunday

  • Of those missing, 3,655 are Nepali citizens, with 592 foreigners unaccounted for

  • In Tibet, the official death toll is 16, with 546 reported missing, according to Chinese state media

  • Hundreds of the missing are believed to be employees of Nepal's hydropower sites, some of whom were working in tunnels

  • From Dhunche, Nepal: Anyone you speak to here will know dozens of people who have died, one man tells us

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Live Reporting

Edited by Caitlin Doherty and Owen Amos, with reporting from BBC Nepali and Azadeh Moshiri in Kathmandu

  1. In pictures: Army personnel organise relief while families mourn loved ones

    Families are mourning the deaths of their loved ones, while rescue and relief efforts for those affected by Wednesday's deadly flash floods are continuing.

    Here are some of the latest pictures:

    Men dressed in two types of camouflage gear, and some wearing hard hats and high-vis vests, carry boxes and back packs out of lorriesreuters

    Armed Police Force (APF) and army personnel organise relief material at Maithili Barrack army training centre in Trishuli, Nepal

    Men in camouflage and high-vis uniforms stand with supplies near a helicopter that is in the airReuters

    Army rangers wait to load relief materials onto a helicopter

    A woman is crying and looks like she may be close to screaming while three other women, some wearing face masks, stand around her and hold herReuters

    Muna Khadka, mother of a 21-year-old, Aayush Khadka, who died during the flash floods, mourns near a cremation ground

  2. Total number missing in Nepal jumps to 4,247

    Eight men in army uniforms board an inflatable red dinghy on the banks of a large muddy river.Reuters

    Members of the Nepali army search for bodies in the Narayani river

    As we just reported, the number of people missing in Nepal has risen sharply as rescue efforts enter a sixth day.

    It now stands at 4,247, according to the country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority - up from Sunday's figure of 2,502.

    Here's a breakdown of who's included:

    • 3,655 Nepali citizens
    • 592 foreigners

    Among those missing figures are:

    • 933 hydropower workers
    • 102 Nepali soldiers, police and customs officers

    Scores of bodies are being found each day, and Nepal's confirmed death toll has now risen to 903 people, up from 781 on Sunday.

    In Tibet, the death toll currently stands at 16, according to Chinese state media, with 546 missing.

  3. At least 275 Indians remain missing in Nepal

    Nikita Yadav
    BBC News, Delhi

    At least 275 Indian nationals still remain missing in Nepal, India's foreign ministry has said. Another 128 people of Indian origin are also missing.

    The ministry said 403 Indian nationals had crossed into Nepal from China, while another 500 were safe in China. A total of 149 people have been rescued till now.

    India has also stepped up support for rescue operations in Nepal. A 19-member specialised forensic team has begun work in Kathmandu, helping analyse DNA samples and identify victims.

    Meanwhile, an Indian tunnel rescue team is working with the Nepali Army at hydropower sites in Chilime and Langtang.

  4. Death toll rises to 903
    Breaking

    The death toll in Nepal has now risen to 903, according to Nepal's national disaster authority, while the number missing is now more than 4,200.

  5. New barrier lake 'basically cleared' but China warns of continual rain

    Rescue operations in GyirongGetty Images

    In an update on Monday, Chinese state media say the barrier lake which formed on Saturday evening has "naturally drained and is basically cleared", but that Gyirong will continue to experience "continuous rainfall" through Tuesday.

    A thick layer of silt, exceeding 1m in depth, has blanketed some of the worst-hit areas in Gyirong, which makes it very easy for people to get trapped, according to China Central Television.

    Search and rescue operations have continued at the border crossing, with 117 firefighters and 13 rescue dogs deployed to help with the search. Two rounds of search have concluded so far, the state broadcaster reported.

    Annotated satellite image of a mountainous region on the border between Nepal and Tibet. Labels identify the Lende Khola river, a newly formed barrier lake, an area of rocks and debris, and the section of glacier that collapsed earlier this week. White boxes mark the barrier lake and another pool of water that has formed on the mountainside, while a yellow outline highlights the collapsed glacier area. Clouds partially obscure parts of the landscape. The annotations show how material from the glacier collapse travelled down the valley, dammed the river to create a barrier lake, and contributed to flash flooding in the area.

  6. Rescuers and residents rely on generators in one of the worst-hit towns

    Azadeh Moshiri
    Reporting from Dhunche

    Rasuwa is one of the worst-hit areas, and here in the town of Dhunche, residents are living with only pockets of electricity, and relying on generators.

    The roads from the capital Kathmandu to Rasuwa have only recently opened up, but they’re narrow, winding roads up the mountains of northern Nepal, and caked in mud, making it difficult for aid to arrive.

    Every few minutes we can still hear helicopters pass from up above, as rescue efforts continue.

    Nearby villages were swallowed by flood water, leaving many people displaced and living in camps. One man told us, anyone you speak to here will know dozens of people who have died.

  7. Burials continue in Chitwan for hundreds of unidentified victims

    Burials continue in Chitwan for unidentified victimsGetty

    Authorities in Chitwan, a district downstream from where the floods first hit last Wednesday, have resumed the burials of unidentified victims whose bodies have washed ashore.

    Officials are collecting DNA samples from these remains, to be matched with the DNA of the family members later on, to identify those deceased.

    Nearly 200 of the 272 bodies were buried on Sunday and officials say they hope to complete the burial of the remaining bodies today.

    Chitwan authorities earlier said that many of the bodies have washed up in a condition that makes identifying them extremely challenging. Each burial would be properly documented, Nepali police say, with serial numbers marked at the burial spot, along with DNA samples, post-mortem and autopsy reports, and any available identification detail.

  8. At least 43 Australians missing

    Simon Atkinson
    Australia reporter

    Each day the official number of Australians unaccounted for in the disaster has risen slightly. Today the government said it now understood that 43 Australians were missing.

    "We haven't given up hope that we can rescue those Australians safe and well," Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlewaite told the ABC.

    "We're doing everything we can, working around the clock to try and locate those missing Australians."

    One of those who was initially listed as missing, Cara Severino, hiked to safety and was picked up by consular officials over the weekend.

    In a statement yesterday, her parents said: “We are so grateful to her Nepalese hiking partners who saw her through a harrowing several days of hiking in very difficult terrain, so thankful that they have all made it to safety."

  9. Loved ones distressed with 'frustratingly low' rescue operations

    Rescue operations at Nepal's Trishuli-3A siteReuters

    A woman whose husband is believed to be trapped inside a hydropower tunnel in Nepal's Trishuli-3A site when the catastrophic flood broke out last Wednesday is stil holding out hope that he is alive.

    "I still have a 50% hope that he is alive because there is an oxygen system inside," Sita Pandey told Nepali newspaper Kantipur.

    "But with every hour that passes, that hope becomes thinner."

    At least 897 people associated with hydropower projects, including Pandey's husband Jiblal Adhikari, are still unaccounted for, according to the Nepal Electricity Authority and the Independent Power Producers' Association.

    Delays with the rescue operations have frustrated their loved ones – rescuers began pumping air into the tunnel over the weekend, but some families say that should have been done earlier.

    "The longer it takes, the more our hope dies. This operation must move much faster because every second is meaningful to us," Jiban Khadka, whose relative is also trapped inside the plant told the paper. "It's a frustratingly slow operation."

  10. Too early to confirm climate change link

    Climate change is known to be driving faster glacier melt in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.

    Geologist Daniel Shugar – one of the first experts to suggest Wednesday's flash flooding could have been caused by glacial activity – said glacial thinning caused by global warming could increase the risk of landslides.

    But it is still too early to link the event to climate change definitively, Shugar, who is based at the University of Calgary in Canada, has told the BBC.

    Simon Cook, a geoscientist at the University of Dundee, said however that climate change "could have an impact".

    "Permafrost is partially holding some mountainsides together, this permafrost is warming and thawing and degrading so you are going to get more landslides," he has said.

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  11. 'The flood took everything': Survivors recount devastating ordeal

    Survivors of massive flash floods in Nepal have recounted how they saw their loved ones disappear into torrents of mud.

    "My family members were swept away by the flood in front of my eyes," Nuwakot distric resident Kalpana Malla told the BBC.

    Malla says her father, mother, sister and sister's children were all claimed by the disaster.

    "They could not escape the flood. There was no chance at all," she says. "This flood took everything but my son and I climbed the rooftop of a house and survived but couldn't explain how."

    Another survivor, Goma Pandit, has said she's lost her buffaloes and all her other cattle.

    "My farmland is also swept away. Ten sacks of mustard seed, tons of corn and rice paddy are all gone, nothing left."

  12. Nepal flood relief vehicles trapped as heavy rain turns roads to mud

    Thousands in Nepal are still waiting to be rescued, but unpredictable weather is making rescue operations increasingly difficult.

    South Asia correspondent Azadeh Moshiri reports from the scene.

  13. Rescuers search for father of girl saved from floods

    Nepalese media have reported that rescuers are searching for the father of a young girl who was rescued from the floodwaters in Khalte, Rasuwa earlier this week.

    Local media reports that Ishara, 5, became trapped in a net after she lost hold of her mother's hand and watched as she was swept away by the floodwaters. She was reportedly rescued and taken to a paediatric hospital.

    Staff there tell Nepal's Online Khabar news site that Ishara arrived to hospital unconscious but was able to provide her name and recount her story after she awoke.

    "No one from her family has been in contact. We don't know whether someone will come looking for her. So, for now, we are doing our best to care for her like our own child," healthcare worker Pavitra Magar told Online Khabar.

    Ishara reportedly told staff that her father was in Kathmandu. The news site says that attempts are being made to find her father via social media.

  14. Rescue efforts enter sixth day in Nepal and Tibet

    An aerial view of buildings damaged and covered in mud next to the Likhu River - the river is bloated and muddyReuters

    Rescue operations have entered their sixth day after flash floods devastated the Nepal-Tibet border region, with the death toll reaching nearly 800.

    In Kathmandu, BBC Nepali has spoken to people leaving pictures of missing loved ones on the wall of a hospital in the hope of finding them.

    Meanwhile, at the Trishuli-3A hydroelectric facility, rescuers have managed to create a hole wide enough to enter and begin the search for survivors, but have so far received no response.

    Of the more than 2,500 missing people, hundreds are believed to be workers in Nepal's hydropower sites.

    Also among the missing are foreign nationals from all over the world - we've got a breakdown here.

    Amid the loss and devastation, there have also been stories of hope and rescue - we've looked at some of those in an earlier post.

    In Tibet, which is controlled by China, the official death toll is 16, with 546 reported to be missing - around half are thought to be foreign nationals.

    Officials in Shigatse say rescue teams are not finding anyone alive, the BBC's China correspondent writes.

  15. 'We're just hoping to hear good news': South London Hindu temple holds prayers for missing members

    Members of the Nepalese community attend special prayers at the South London Sanatan Mandir - a group of around 40 people pictured in the roomReuters

    Earlier today special prayers were held at the south London Sanatan Mandir temple, where the community holds out hope for 16 of its members who remain missing since Wednesday's floods.

    Prajval Haldia, 22, whose parents are among the missing, says he is "trying to stay positive".

    "I was really close to my parents. I'm an only child, so, like, losing that support system, the people you speak to every day, it's really hard, but we're just hoping to hear good news very soon," he tells news agency AFP.

    "Everyone's here for the same thing, to try and hope for, and be positive, and pray for everyone coming back home safely."

    Prajval Haldia looks to camera and speaks from inside the templeAFP

    Prajval Haldia, 22, says he and others are hoping for good news

  16. At this wall of missing people in people in Kathmandu, loved ones hold out hope

    Shreejana Shrestha
    BBC Nepali, reporting from Kathmandu

    A woman stands in front of a wall on which lots of pieces of paper are stuck, showing the faces of and listing information about missing peopleBBC Nepali

    I've been speaking to people appealing for information to find loved ones at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, where the images of missing people cover a wall.

    "This is my brother." Nani Maya BK tells me. "This too, this too."

    She continues: "This is my son. This one too."

    She says she has heard of many people stuck in forests, waiting to be rescued. "I hope they could be found among them," she says.

    "I am posting their photos, asking them to contact us once they see them."

  17. More than 200 school students missing, Nepalese education ministry says

    Phanindra Dahal and Swati Joshi
    BBC Nepali and South Asia visual journalism

    At least 19 schools have been affected across the three districts worst hit by the floods, Nepal's education ministry says.

    At least nine schools have been destroyed and seven others have been partially damaged, and teachers and students have been reported missing at several institutions.

    According to the latest assessment by the Ministry of Education and Sports, more than 200 students are missing and about 20 have been swept away by the floods.

    Most of the schools that have been severely damaged are in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts.

    Several schools in these two districts, where 2,425 students were studying, have either been flooded or buried.

    One school reported that the flood swept away a bus carrying one of its students.

    BBC's South Asia visual journalism mapped out the areas where the schools were hit using satellite imagery.

    Satellite imagery showing the location of schools as well as the size of the Trishuli River before and after the flood.
    Satellite imagery showing the location of schools as well as the size of the Trishuli River before and after the flood.

  18. Residents in Rasuwa say they are without electricity and supplies

    Gani Ansari
    BBC Nepali, reporting from Kathmandu

    Helicopters are pictured on a hill with fog in a valley belowRSS

    Officials say that relief distribution is being coordinated from the district headquarters in Dhunche in Rasuwa

    Several days since the floods hit, residents in Nepal's Rasuwa district say they are still cut off from basic services and have yet to receive relief.

    Rasuwa lies upstream and closer to the location of the landslide. It bore the brunt of the flooding, with roads washed away. More than four days later, residents say they are still isolated.

    "There is no electricity, no roads to go anywhere, and relief has not reached here," Hembe Tamang, 40, from Aamachhodingmo Rural Municipality, told me by phone. Tamang's son-in-law is among those missing after the floods.

    With power still out, many residents say they have struggled to stay in touch with relatives. A solar panel at the municipal office has become one of the few places where people can charge their phones, often after waiting for hours.

    Health workers have also warned that supplies are running low, with enough food remaining for a day or two and gas completely gone.

    Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority says aid is being delivered where roads remain passable, while work is under way to reopen routes and reach communities still cut off by the floods.

    Map of central Nepal showing four of the worst-hit districts: Gorkha, Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading. A marker north of Rasuwa, across the border in Tibet, indicates the location of a large landslide. Kathmandu is shown to the south of the affected area. An inset map locates the region within Asia.

  19. Nearly 300 foreign nationals rescued - Nepal Tourism Board

    The Nepal Tourism Board says 289 foreign nationals have been rescued since the floods hit earlier in the week.

    Another 591 are out of communication as of 18:00 local time (13:15 BST), the board adds.

    "Search, rescue, evacuation and assistance operations are continuing for those who remain stranded, injured or otherwise affected," it says in its latest statement.

  20. Missing British couple crossed border to Tibet, son tells BBC

    Sean Dilley
    BBC correspondent

    Undated photo of Kavita Haldia (51) & Pavan Haldia (52) from BromleySupplied

    Prajval Haldia, from south London, says the UK Foreign Office has updated him on his parents' whereabouts prior to Wednesday's floods.

    The Foreign Office tells him that, according to information from the Chinese government, Pavan and Kavita Haldia completed immigration at the Gyirong Port and were registered as missing on the Tibetan side of the border.

    The Londoner had dropped his parents off at the airport for their trip to Kathmandu. He knew they were planning to visit Mount Kailash, but hadn't heard of their whereabouts since news of the floods.

    "This is a significant development in our search," Haldia tells the BBC. He goes on to call on the British government and relevant authorities to "collaborate as much as they possibly can with their Chinese counterparts at this time".

    Haldia continues to hold on to hope for his parents' safe return, voicing gratitude "for every effort being made to locate them".