UDIN DHUNGA, Nepal — Massive flash floods in a border area of Nepal and China on Wednesday killed at least 75 people and left hundreds of tourists, workers and others missing after sweeping through communities and bringing travel in parts of the Himalayan country to a halt. Officials in Nepal said 403 people, including 341 foreign nationals were reported missing. Sunil Sharma, a Nepal Tourism Board spokesperson, said 133 missing were from India on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in China's autonomous region of Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus.
Also missing were 47 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from the Britain and 24 from Canada, he said, adding that people from at least 26 countries had been present in the affected area. At least 62 missing Nepali citizens were among hundreds of locals trekking in the Gosaikunda lake in Rasuwa, coinciding with the Nepali festival of Janai Purnima on Friday, Sharma added. China's state broadcaster CCTV said a mudslide in Tibet's Gyirong County near Nepal killed at least three people and left 265 missing, based on a preliminary count.
Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle, who gave the local death toll, also told The that at least 28 police officials were among the missing. Officials warned residents in several of Nepal's districts to stay away from the banks of the Bhotekoshi, Trishuli and Narayani rivers. The Bhotekoshi flooded around 9 a.m.
Wednesday, destroying several villages, roads and hydropower projects, officials said. "We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue efforts," said Sasmit Pokharel, a Nepali government spokesperson. Nepal's steep valleys are economic lifelines and travel corridors but precarious ones when disaster strikes.
Images showed what appeared to be the second floors of buildings in hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud after the torrent rushed by. Debris hung from tree branches and wires, vehicles were buried and stunned survivors were caked in mud. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 4.4 earthquake early Wednesday, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Kathmandu, near the border with China's autonomous region of Tibet.
Though the current monsoon season is less favorable for trekking in Nepal, it's a major season for Kailash trekking in Tibet, which follows the route in Nepal's Rasuwa district bordering Tibet's Gyirong. South Korean government officials said citizens working on building a hydropower plant in Nepal were among those reported missing. Malaysia's foreign ministry said its embassy in Kathmandu received reports from travel agencies that they had lost contact with 11 Malaysians believed to be in the Rasuwa district, also hit hard by floods.
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