Flood death toll in Nepal and China rises to 768
The death toll from devastating floods in Nepal and China's Tibet region has climbed to 768, with more than 3,000 people still reported missing. The disaster may have been triggered by a landslide caused by tremors or melting glacier ice.
Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs and Chinese state media reported on Sunday, August 30, that the death toll from flooding in both countries has reached 768. Of these, 752 deaths occurred in Nepal and 16 in Tibet.
An even larger number of people remain unaccounted for. In Nepal, 2,502 people are listed as missing, while in China the figure stands at 546. Combined, 3,048 people are missing across both countries, according to Deutsche Welle.
Possible cause of the disaster
The flooding began on the morning of August 26 in Nepal's mountainous Rasuwa district, which borders Tibet. According to preliminary information from Nepal's Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal, the disaster may have started with a landslide — the Bhote Koshi river, which originates in China's Tibet Autonomous Region and flows through Nepal's Bagmati Province, overflowed its banks after a massive collapse of mud and rock into the waterway.
The collapse itself may have been triggered by underground tremors or the melting of a glacier, though the exact circumstances are still being clarified.
Difficulties in assessing the scale
Tibet remains largely inaccessible to foreign journalists, which continues to hamper independent reporting on the true scale of the disaster in the region.
