KATHMANDU — The death toll from the catastrophic glacial collapse along the Nepal-China border has risen to at least 750 people, officials confirmed on Sunday, as rescue teams face deteriorating weather in a desperate search for over 3,000 people still missing.
The disaster began Wednesday morning when an estimated 100 million cubic meters of bedrock and glacier ice detached from a mountain cliff in the Langtang region. The impact on the valley floor generated a ground vibration equivalent to a magnitude-5.2 earthquake, instantly pulverizing the ice into a hyper-concentrated torrent of mud and boulders. Downstream monitoring stations reported that water levels in the Trishuli and Bhote Koshi River basins rose by nine meters in just 30 minutes.
According to humanitarian agencies, the resulting flash floods have severely affected more than 90,000 people. The torrent obliterated 25 miles of roads, 19 bridges, and 13 vital hydropower projects, cutting off entire border communities.
Emergency operations were repeatedly suspended over the weekend due to heavy rains and the threat of secondary flooding. Satellite and drone tracking late Saturday detected a fresh landslide downstream, creating an unstable natural dam that threatens to burst. Nepalese authorities have deployed over 20,000 security personnel and requested international technical assistance to reach hundreds of laborers believed to be trapped inside flooded hydropower tunnels.
With local infrastructure overwhelmed and morgues at capacity, authorities have begun mass burials of unidentified victims. International forensic teams are being sought to assist with DNA identification.
The United Nations and global climate scientific bodies have cited the disaster as a stark warning regarding accelerating global warming. The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is warming faster than the global average, degrading the permafrost that historically stabilized these mountain structures.
Among the dead and missing are hundreds of foreign tourists and religious pilgrims, with nationals from Nepal, India, Latvia, the United States, and Canada among the most affected.
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