Catastrophic Himalayan floods kill at least 390, leave 1,400 missing

KUALA LUMPUR, 28 AUGUST 2026 —

Rescue helicopters buzzed the steep valleys of Nepal and Tibet on Thursday, scouring the wreckage of communities buried under a two-storey wall of water and mud that surged through the Himalayan border after a glacier collapsed.

Nepal’s police reported 389 deaths and 910 missing inside the country, while Tibet logged three dead and 558 missing. Videos broadcast by China Central Television showed the flood at Gyirong Port engulfing port buildings, swamping a bus park and burying a two-lane highway beneath more than 1.5 m of mud.

The surge followed the failure of a glacier high above the Trishuli and Bhote Koshi river basins, where Nepalese army helicopters have already rescued more than 100 people and flown out workers trapped at the Trishuli hydropower plant.

Brig-Gen Raja Ram Basnet, Nepal army spokesman, said at least 40 km of roads and dozens of bridges were destroyed, forcing rescue teams to rely on airlifts because ground routes no longer existed. In Chitwan district, 200 km downstream, soldiers recovered bodies that had been carried kilometres from the epicentre.

The Nepal Red Cross said about 1,200 villagers had been displaced and was shifting from rescue to relief, opening shelters and delivering clean water. “Many people are asking about relatives,” said Bishal Kumar Bhandari, the society’s chairman. “We are trying to reach every community.”

Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Gyirong on Thursday with 500 military and paramilitary personnel to lead operations, while state broadcaster CCTV warned that a newly formed lake at the Tsogyal–Purupqiangzangbu confluence was rising and could burst.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said he had released $2 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund for medical care, shelter and water, calling the floods “horrifying.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pledged further support “to deliver emergency aid.”

Among the missing are 517 foreign tourists and pilgrims registered with Nepal’s tourism board. The largest groups are 178 Indians, more than 60 Americans, and travellers from 30 other countries including Ukraine, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Japan. Many had been heading to Mount Kailash, a sacred site on the Tibet–Nepal border.

Survivors described a grey wall of water engulfing villages before they could flee. Shova Shrestha, 33, has waited two days outside Bidur hospital for news of her husband. “His phone rang once, then went dead,” she said. “I watch every helicopter land, hoping he will be on it.”

Glaciologists link the collapse to accelerated melting under human-driven climate change. The Himalayas hold the planet’s third-largest ice reserves after the Arctic and Antarctic, and scientists say warming has doubled the rate of glacial lake outbursts in the region since 2000.

For Malaysian investors, the disaster adds to supply-chain risks in South Asia’s hydropower and tourism sectors already under pressure from extreme weather.