The day so far
- Nepal’s disaster authority raised sharply the number of missing to 1,924 on Friday, two days after devastating floods that killed at least 579 in the country. The number of missing includes 517 foreigners, as well as 933 workers on hydropower projects on the rivers where a wall of water powered down on Wednesday morning, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
- The Red Cross has said at least 93,000 people may have been affected by Wednesday’s flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border, triggering a huge rescue operation that is being hampered by fears of new flooding. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network, said it feared the death toll would continue to rise as some of the hardest-hit areas remained inaccessible after roads and bridges were destroyed by the torrents.
- Rescue teams have reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border. Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for advanced medical care and more than 100 people were rescued by Nepali army personnel in helicopters.
- Families are rushing to Nepal to search for the 33 British nationals who are still missing, as fears mount over the risk of a second wave of flooding in the region. The catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and sweeping away entire villages.
- A family from Surrey, including a 13-year-old girl, are thought to be among the missing Britons in Nepal, PA Media reports. The news agency named the family as Santosh Sahu, 46, who was the chief executive of UK pharmaceutical technology company Charac, his wife, Surabhi Manmath Padhy, 44, and their children, Spandan Sahu, 18, and Syna Kumari Sahu, 13.
- Rescue efforts in Bidur, the capital of the Nuwakot district in Bagmati province, Nepal, were disrupted on Friday morning as the Trishuli River began to rise again after the lake near the border overflowed. Rescue workers were moved from the area and people who had tried to return to what remained of their homes were told to evacuate again immediately.
- The European Union has promised €2m ($2.3m) in aid for Nepal after devastating floods on the country’s border with Tibet swept away entire villages, killing hundreds of people. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X that the “immediate humanitarian aid” would help “deliver life-saving assistance to families and communities hit hardest.”
- Nepal has said it does not yet need foreign assistance as the search and rescue operation – complicated by the destruction of bridges and roads across the mountainous region – continues. “The offer for help is natural,” Lok Bahadur Chhetri, a spokesperson for Nepal’s foreign ministry, said on Friday. “Our security agencies are doing the search and rescue operation. For now we don’t require such help.”
- Authorities in Nepal and China issued warnings about the risk of a second wave of flooding. Chinese authorities said an artificial lake had formed after a mudslide hit the Tibet-Nepal border, which risked “sending flood waters downstream”, according to state media. Nepal’s disaster authority said a lake that had formed by debris blocking a river at the site was also rising and at risk of bursting.
- In a video on YouTube, Jaggi Vasudev, known as Sadhguru, a spiritual leader who founded the nonprofit Isha Foundation, told followers at the foundation’s camp at Saga in Tibet, China, that 80 members of an Isha group returning from Kailash Mansarovar, a high-altitude site in Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists, were missing, including nine British people. Among them is Neetu Goyal Tiwari, 51. Her brother Naresh Goyal told the BBC that completing the pilgrimage was “her dream”.
- Rescuers were forced to suspend their search for survivors, while residents who had returned to Rasuwa were told to evacuate their homes, with many seen fleeing up the hillsides to escape a possible surge in the river.