Himalayan glacier collapse kills 797, leaves 3,048 missing
Rescuers in Nepal and China recovered another 16 bodies on Sunday after a Himalayan glacier collapse sent a mudslide across the border, pushing the death toll to 797 and leaving 3,048 people unaccounted for.
Source: Channel NewsAsia · August 30, 2026 at 3:01 PM · AI-assisted report
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BEIJING, 30 AUGUST 2026 —
Rescuers in Nepal and China recovered another 16 bodies on Sunday after a Himalayan glacier collapse sent a mudslide across the border, pushing the death toll to 797 and leaving 3,048 people unaccounted for.
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Nepal’s authorities reported 781 dead and 2,502 missing on the fifth day of rescue efforts, while China confirmed 16 fatalities and 546 missing in Tibet, according to state media and Nepal’s foreign ministry. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimates more than 90,000 people have been affected.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Nepalese counterpart on Saturday that the mudslide was the two nations’ “most severe cross-border disaster in recent years,” state broadcaster CCTV reported. Beijing said 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries remain unaccounted for near the Gyirong border crossing.
Rising water levels in the Trishuli River forced residents and rescuers onto higher ground after fresh rainfall, local police in Nepal told Reuters, heightening fears of further flooding. Rescue efforts have been suspended repeatedly since Friday due to bad weather and the risk that a lake formed by the disaster—now largely drained—could overflow again.
Drone footage on Saturday revealed a new landslide 2.8 km downstream of the drained lake, forming another dam and creating a fresh pool of water. In Nepal, attention has shifted to hundreds of people believed trapped inside damaged hydropower tunnels.
Lok Bahadur Chhetri, a spokesperson for Nepal’s foreign ministry, said the country needs international help in specialised areas such as tunnel rescues, DNA testing, refrigerated storage for bodies, and forensic identification of decomposed remains. Indian and Chinese experts are already assisting, he said.
With decomposition setting in, authorities in Nepal began mass burials of unidentified victims. In Chitwan district, bodies swept downstream from the flood-hit Rasuwa region have been carried into the Narayani River system, where police are photographing remains, collecting DNA samples, and recording details in case families can later identify loved ones.
“Of the bodies recovered so far, more than half are beyond recognition,” police officer Anil Thapa told Reuters. “Many have no visible faces. In some cases, only hands or legs remain; in others, only parts of the body are available. In many cases, more than half of the head is missing.”
After burying over 100 unidentified bodies on Saturday, authorities were preparing additional graves on Sunday. The flood was attributed by CCTV to “glacier instability under the long-term effects of global warming,” describing it as a “new and prominent feature of cryosphere disasters” on the Tibetan plateau.
Chinese rescue teams have mobilised over 2,100 workers and allocated at least 220 million yuan (US$32.7 million) to support relief efforts, airdropping equipment to frontline rescuers. State media said Chinese soldiers used life-detection devices in the search for survivors, while surveillance footage showed torrents of water and debris swallowing buildings as people fled.
The disaster highlights tightening humanitarian and operational challenges posed by climate-linked events across fragile Himalayan ecosystems.
Related: Wang Yi