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Number of Australians missing in Nepal’s deadly floods rises again, as Albanese deploys more personnel

The number of Australians who were reported missing in the catastrophic Nepal flooding disaster has risen to 41, as one family celebrates after an unaccounted-for woman made contact with them yesterday. It means three additional Australians were confirmed missing overnight – up from 38 who remained unaccounted for on Friday evening. The Australian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs has been urgently working with local authorities to contact Australian woman Cara Severino, 25, who became the first Australian reported missing who has been confirmed safe. Severino contacted her parents, Debbie and Frank Severino, on Friday morning, informing them she was hiking away from the disaster zone to Kathmandu with a group of Nepali hikers – a trek of more than 110km. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email The Red Cross has said about 600 people are dead and as many as 93,000 people may have been affected by Wednesday’s flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border, with a huge rescue operation that is being hampered by fears of new flooding. Dfat has received more than 450 calls in relation to the disaster. Nepal’s disaster management agency says there are 1,924 people unaccounted for – 517 of those people are foreign tourists. About 7:30pm on Friday evening, the authority said 121 foreigners had been rescued – none of them were Australians. View from Kathmandu hospital Outside the hospital in Kathmandu yesterday, there were scenes of anxiety as families put up posters of loved ones, and authorities hung pictures of the dead that need to be identified. One woman said her cousin was on his way back from Australia because his brother had gone missing. Like many others, she was putting pictures of him up, in case he was brought back to the hospital. Australian charities are starting to pump in aid, with the Emergency Action Alliance – a peak body representing major Australian charities – raising funds to build emergency shelters, get food and safe drinking water, hygiene supplies and medical care to communities. But conditions on the ground are difficult and unpredictable owing to the scale of the damage and the heavy monsoon. Rescue operations in Nepal and China resumed as of Saturday morning after being suspended due to the risk of further flooding. Four Dfat crisis response team officers are expected to arrive in Kathmandu later on Saturday to support consular efforts on the ground. Four rapid response team members are also expected to arrive in Kathmandu – humanitarian response specialists with expertise in communications, logistics and planning. These extra deployments add to about 20 personnel Australian already has on the ground with the Australian embassy in Kathmandu. On Friday night, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, spoke with the Nepali foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, to affirm that Australia would provide further humanitarian assistance, including to aid rescue and recovery efforts, where required. Australia has pledged $5m in aid and support for the disaster.

At least 90 Americans missing in Nepal flood among 2,000 unaccounted for

At least 90 Americans were still missing on Friday among almost 2,000 people unaccounted for following the catastrophic flash flood along the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday. With the official death toll creeping towards 600 on Friday and expected to continue rising, there were survivors, victims and missing people from many nationalities. “We can confirm that three American citizens have been safely rescued in Nepal. We are not aware of any US citizen deaths at this time,” the state department said on Thursday, USA Today reported. At least 90 Americans who were in the affected area remained unaccounted for. The Guardian has approached the state department for additional comment. Many of the Americans who are missing were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, a sacred site in Tibet revered by several faiths, including Hinduism and Buddhism. Twenty-two Americans returning from a pilgrimage hosted by the Isha Foundation, were among 80 foundation members not yet located, founder and spiritual leader Sadhguru Vasudev said in a statement on Thursday. The India-based spiritual organization has a US campus in Tennessee. Leslie Crespi, a community liaison for the foundation’s US campus, said: “We had communication with the coordinator of the group at about 9.05am Nepalese time [Wednesday] saying that they had arrived there. And then by 9.14am is when this flash flood hit.” Crespi described the trekkers as “like family”, adding that it was a “lifelong dream to go and be there” in Nepal for many of them. Among the missing Americans is 45-year-old Venus Rajnikant Patel. His brother, Dennis, said Patel, who had recently moved from St Louis to Cincinnati, had been planning the pilgrimage for two years. Patel’s friend Jolene Gosha said his hotel had been in the flood zone and “we’re just hoping, hoping, that by some chance he was able to climb his way out of it … I don’t want to give myself false hope because I know the reality is that he’s probably not with us.” Meanwhile, the family of 72-year-old Jitendra Patel of Long Island in New York were still trying to reach him, his son Sunny Patel said. Patel said his father called on Wednesday morning to say he had crossed into Tibet, and the family later realized he was in the flood zone. “My heart sank,” Patel said, adding that he “didn’t think it was possible that my dad would be there at ‘ground zero’” of the flooding disaster. The family is “maybe hopeful”, he said, but they have not heard from him and their WhatsApp messages remain unanswered. “It gets worse by every hour, obviously,” Patel added. Also missing are Rekha and Rashi Shashidharan, a New York mother and 14-year-old daughter who were also on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. They had spent several days in Kathmandu acclimating to the altitude before traveling towards Tibet with a tour group, Shekhar Agrawal, Rekha’s brother, told CNN. Agrawal last spoke to them around 7.30am local time on Wednesday before they planned to cross into Tibet. “After that, there was radio silence, nothing, no contact whatsoever,” Agrawal said, adding that he believed they may have still been at their hotel when the flood hit. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said the US “stands ready to support the government of Nepal with needed humanitarian assistance”. Meanwhile, the US embassy in Nepal said that the state department would “provide $500,000 (approximately 76m Nepali rupees) in assistance through a global grant to Catholic Relief Services, which will help flood-affected communities with emergency shelter and relief supplies, as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene support”. The Associated Press contributed reporting

‘So desperately loved’: ADF member among dozens of Australians missing in Nepal floods as families pray for safe return

The families of an Australian defence force member and two Sydney boys who went missing with their parents in Nepal remain hopeful they will be found safe. Dozens of Australians are missing after devastating flooding on the Nepal-Tibet border. Nepal’s disaster management authority said on Friday that the total number of people missing had risen sharply to more than 1,900 swelled by 933 workers on hydropower projects on the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers where a wall of water powered down on Wednesday morning. The number of people killed is at least 584. One Australian woman contacted her family on Friday morning to tell them that she had survived the flood, the first of those reported missing to be confirmed safe. Among the missing Australians is Karan Bhardwaj, a 40-year-old Brisbane-based member of the Royal Australian air force who was travelling in Nepal with Kailash Journeys. “Karan is a dad to my beautiful seven-year-old nephew, as well as a brother, uncle and brother in law,” said his family member Jen, who did not want her surname published. “He is so desperately loved by his family and right now we are desperately praying, hoping and believing that Karan is safe, alive and somehow making his way back to us.” Shylaja Muralitharan, 42, her husband, Chandrasekaran Muralitharan, 47, and their two sons Ashwin, 14, and Aarush, 11, were taking part in a pilgrimage when the flood hit on Wednesday. Shylaja’s younger sister, Vaishnavi, said that she had lost contact with the family shortly after breakfast on the morning of the flood. The family of four planned to head towards an immigration checkpoint on the Tibet-Nepal border soon after, as part of the group of 15 Australians trekking with the Himalayan Glacier Adventures tour. “Just like everyone else that’s part of that group, we’re really worried, but hopeful,” Vaishnavi said. “Hopeful that they’re safe and just waiting to be rescued. “It’s a very difficult time for our whole family … I just want to make people aware that they’re there, and we’re waiting, and we just want them to return.” Vaishnavi, who asked that her surname not be published, confirmed the family were close with other members of the group who had also travelled from Sydney for the Hindu pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email The family had been training together for the long walk, she said. “They had been planning for some time, and preparing, because it’s quite a trek. “They were all working very hard together to make sure they could successfully complete it. “We just didn’t expect anything like this.” Vaishnavi said it was difficult to get clear information about what was being done to find those missing. She has spoken with Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials. “We do want to know what efforts are being made … we’re not aware of what is actually happening there.” Australian woman Sumi Adhikari was at an immigration office at the Gyirong Post crossing when the flood waters hit. She was travelling with an Isha Foundation pilgrimage to the region. Her husband, Nava Pandey, has travelled to Nepal and is desperately seeking information about her whereabouts. “She was in the same area when the flood happened,” said a flyer produced by Adhikari’s family, and published with their permission. “If anyone has seen her or has any information about her, please contact the family immediately.” Bharat Mangwani, 42, was travelling with the Isha Foundation as part of a pilgrimage to Lake Manasarovar when his family lost contact with him on Wednesday morning. He was last seen at Gyirong before the group was set to depart for Kathmandu and then Delhi, his close friend Kushagra Tiwari said. Mangwani’s family, including his nine-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, have travelled to India with a family friend, while his wife has gone on to Kathmandu to look for any information. “All of us are praying for him and hopefully he comes back to us soon,” Tiwari said. Suhasini Kandimalla, a mother of two from Springfield, near Brisbane, has also been reported missing. Her sister, Supreethini Kandimalla, said that she was doing the hike with another Springfield local. While she was a New Zealand citizen, Suhasini had been approved for Australian citizenship, her sister said. She had planned to attend a citizenship ceremony for it to be granted soon after she returned. “I don’t know if it was a religious calling for her to do it,” Supreethini told the Guardian. “But she certainly loved the treks in New Zealand too, and would go on lots of long hikes.” A Brisbane man, Narayan Panthi, is also missing in the region. According to Nepal police, he was travelling with Kathmandu Holiday but he has also been conducting charity work in the capital with an education fund, the NeNas Foundation. Panthi’s cousin, Amrit Bhusal, said his family was devastated but “holding on to hope and praying for positive news”. “We are still hoping,” Bhusal said. “We are still searching. We are still praying for Narayan to come home safely.” Bhusal said Panthi was “helping disadvantaged children in Nepal reach their full potential through education”. New South Wales couple Venkatraman Balakrishnan, 52, and his wife, Chitra Venkatraman, 46, were also among the 15 Australians travelling to Mount Kailash. So too were Sreedharan and Lakshmi Iyer, and their adult sons Rishab, 23, and Rudhra, 20. The brothers played cricket for West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club in Sydney’s north-west. “WPHCCC is aware of the reports that two of our players, Rishab and Rudhra Iyer, along with their family members and other Australians, are unaccounted for in the ongoing floods in Nepal,” the club said in a statement. “We continue to live in hope, and our thoughts are currently with them, their loved ones and all affected by this tragedy in Nepal.” The University of Newcastle’s vice-chancellor, Alex Zelinsky, said Rishab and Rudhra were both medical students the at the university. “We are thinking of them, their families, their fellow students and teaching staff, as well as the many people who have been impacted by this devastating event and we hope that both students can be located soon,” Zelinsky said in a statement. Separate groups of Australians – 11 travelling with Trekkers Society and six with Kailash Journeys – are also unaccounted for. Both tour companies have been contacted for comment. Several other Australians were travelling with other tour groups. It is understood the majority of missing Australians are from New South Wales, but there are also some from Victoria and Queensland. The founder and chief executive of Himalayan Glacier Adventures, Sagar Pandey, said he had lost all contact with his tour group of 47 people, which included the 15 Australians. Pandey told the Guardian on Thursday he had flown by helicopter over the Rasuwa area, where the tour was staying, since the flood and had little hope they survived. “To be honest … you would think there was no human civilisation there at all. “The flash flood swept away everything, everything. You couldn’t see any human creations. “Still, I have a hope.” The Isha Foundation confirmed that 11 Australians were among a group of 80 missing pilgrims who had been in an immigration building when the flood hit. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, spoke to her Nepali counterpart, Shisir Khanal, on Friday evening to convey Australia’s deepest condolences following the devastating floods. She outlined Australia’s humanitarian assistance package in which Australia was “rapidly mobilising consular and humanitarian support in response” to the flooding. Wong said the government would send an initial team of three humanitarian response specialists “within the next 48 hours’” to help Australian staff already on the ground. “The extraordinary scale of this disaster and the remoteness of the affected region mean immense challenges lie ahead for the response and recovery.”

‘The flood took everything I have’: survivors grieve for relatives and homes swept away in Nepal

The three women sat together in the army tent and wept. They cried out for their sons, their husbands, their homes. As flash floods coursed through the Himalayan mountains on Wednesday morning, a monstrous black wave took everything from them. As a melting glacier high up in the Himalayas between Tibet and Nepal splintered and crashed into the valley below, it set off a deadly cascade of water, mud and debris down the Bhote Koshi River. The impact of the glacier collapse was so strong that experts initially reported it as an earthquake. The Nepali village homes that lined the riverbank and clung to the mountainside stood little chance. Sangke Dolma Tamang, 61, had been cheerily cooking snacks in her village of Mailung in the Rasuwa district when the floods came without warning. The whole family ran uphill for safety, but as she grabbed for her husband, he slipped from her grip and was washed into the dark, fast-moving waters. “Others tried to pull him to safety, but the flood swept him away,” she said, tears rolling down her weathered cheeks. There was, she said, nothing left of her village now. She had spent a night sheltering on higher ground, until an army helicopter arrived and brought to her safety at the barracks. Her son too was missing since the disaster, and she waited anxiously for any news. “Now I have nothing left to live for,” said Tamang. “The whole house is gone. We couldn’t salvage anything.” Two days after the disaster, at least 579 people have been confirmed dead and more than 1,900 are still missing, the numbers rising by the day. Many in Nepal fear that the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge, as the worst-hit areas in districts such as Rusawa are only accessible by helicopter. The situation remains even more opaque in Tibet, which is under tight Chinese media control. Though it was at the centre of the disaster, Chinese authorities insist only five people there have died. In the army barracks in the town of Bidur, where Nepal’s rescue efforts were being coordinated, helicopters carrying those rescued from flooded areas continued to arrive every few minutes, while others carrying vital supplies of food and clean water flew out and high up into the mountains. On Friday morning, ground rescue efforts were halted over fears that the river levels were rising once again. But the Nepali army spokesperson, Brig Gen Raja Ram Basnet, said the helicopter rescues would continue for as long as people were missing. He accepted that the death toll was hard to calculate. “Right now, our focus is mostly on finding the living,” he said. Among those recently brought to safety was 60-year-old Murali Maiya Tamang, who had been in Rusawa and was found hanging in a tree. As the flash floods came down the valley, she had watched as her house was washed clean away. She convulsed with tears as she waited desperately for news of her son, who was in their village when the floods struck and has been missing since. “My husband had already died in Nepal’s 2015 earthquake,” she said. “Now this flood has taken away the only son I had left. I am all alone now. What is the point of living now?” Many in the barracks waited of news of their fathers, brothers and husbands who had been working on vast hydroelectric projects along the Bhote Koshi River, many of which were washed away and the tunnels filled with mud. On Friday, footage showed rescuers pulling some workers to safety from within the tunnels. A few miles from the army barracks stood the remains of the town of Bidur, on the banks of the Trishuli River. It was one of the last towns to be hit by the flash floods, but it took just a few minutes for it to be reduced to mangled debris. The ruins of a bank, a government office and an ATM booth stood still half submerged in mud. Rescuers said there were bodies buried inside, but it was still too dangerous and the terrain too unstable to collect them. On Friday afternoon, Nepal’s newly elected home minister, Sudan Gurung, surveyed the damage. “It is so sad to see such a heavy loss of human lives,” he told the Guardian. “Our priority right now is rescuing people. We are searching for everyone who is still missing, assuming that they are all alive. We are searching for everyone, whether they are Nepali citizens or international nationals.” Dozens of local people made attempts to return to the site of their homes, in a bid to collect any remnant of their lives. Most just found a deep abyss of mud. Picking through the deep mud and devastation of the town, Ashok Chaurasia, a shopkeeper, said he had heard the terrifying roar of the water before he saw it. The dark muddy waters already snapped at his heels as they ran uphill for safety, a bridge over the river collapsing behind them. He survived by just 20 seconds, clinging on to the wall of a monastery for dear life. His nephew and his sister-in-law were not so lucky. Yet even as he blessed his survival, he wept at his losses. “We had a three-storey house here, and now there isn’t even a single brick left,” he said. “Nothing can be seen. We have nothing to eat or wear. The flood took everything I have.”

Venezuelan opposition up in arms over reports US wants big stake in oil and gas

Reports that the US is preparing to claim a big stake in Venezuela’s massive energy reserves have sparked an outcry, with critics describing the move as “predatory” and a “rapacious” land grab. Several media outlets this week reported that the Trump administration – which abducted Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, in January and has steered the South American country ever since – hopes to secure long-term access to its oil and gasfields. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves with an estimated 303bn barrels, compared with Saudi Arabia’s 268bn and Iran’s 208bn. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal said Trump officials were in “advanced talks” with Venezuelan officials to take “a direct stake in more than a dozen oilfields” containing 90bn barrels, nearly a third of Venezuela’s energy reserves. “This is real and being discussed at the highest levels of the US and Venezuelan governments,” a source told Reuters, which said the fields being negotiated were in the Orinoco Belt and Lake Maracaibo regions. Axios claimed the deal would be “a legacy-defining moment for President Trump”, with one unnamed official telling the US outlet: “Calling this deal huge would be an understatement … It is massive.” Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the negotiations, said one deal under discussion was a 100-year lease on several oilfields. The reports caused unease and anger among members of Venezuela’s opposition, who are already up in arms about Trump’s failure to bring about genuine political change after capturing Maduro. “It’s a land grab – a massive land grab,” said one well-known opposition figure who asked not to be named because of the sensitivities of criticising the US. “It’s revolting because this is not the United States one would have [expected]. This is not the United States of the Marshall plan. This is a rapacious, mafioso United States,” they added. Since January’s special forces raid on Caracas, Venezuela has been led by an interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice-president and minister of petroleum. Other key members of Maduro’s regime have also retained positions of power, including the interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, who has been collaborating with Trump officials – despite having a $25m (£18m) US bounty on his head for alleged drug trafficking. Meanwhile, the exiled opposition leader, María Corina Machado, whose movement is believed to have won the 2024 presidential elections, has been sidelined. Ricardo Hausmann, an exiled former minister and opposition supporter, wrote on X: “An illegitimate interim government with an illegitimate hydrocarbons law has no legitimacy to strike this unconstitutional deal. It will be a fiasco for all involved.” The economist Francisco Rodríguez urged Venezuela’s national assembly to reject what he called a “predatory deal”. “Handing over Venezuela’s oil wealth to the US contravenes the constitution and is not in the interest of the Venezuelan people – much more when it is done at gunpoint,” Rodríguez said. Luz Mely Reyes, a prominent journalist and government critic, sarcastically called the “surrender” of Venezuela’s natural riches “the deal of the century”. Gregory Brew, an energy historian and Eurasia Group analyst, anticipated “quite a lot of suspicion and rejection of any deal that would hand the United States government effective control over Venezuelan resources”. Brew said the reported deal reminded him of how BP, then the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, controlled the oil resources of Iraq and Iran at the start of the last century. “Anglo-Persian was given a concession by the shah of Iran in 1901 … in exchange for what was essentially a bribe to the Persian government, and it gave the company sweeping rights. The company was essentially in total control of any oil it found and would be able to retain virtually all the profits of any other oil it found and exploited and exported,” Brew said. “From Trump’s point of view, the control over oil is something of an end in and of itself,. But if you do try to rationalise it, I think US dominance over Venezuelan oil reserves allows the US to regard Venezuelan reserves as its own reserves: a source of oil from which the United States can draw and that nobody else has access to. I think that’s how the administration is conceiving of this – excluding China, excluding Russia, but I think also excluding other potential customers for Venezuelan oil,” he said. “It sounds colonial, because it is.” Venezuela’s post-Maduro conversion into what many call a US protectorate is the most dramatic play in Trump’s push to reassert Washington’s influence over Latin America as part of the so-called “Donroe Doctrine”. That policy is a 21st-century adaptation of the 19th-century Monroe doctrine by which President James Monroe sought to keep European powers out of the Americas. Trump’s version is about countering China’s growing footprint in the region and imposing US will through economic and military pressure. Maduro’s downfall has brought some change to Venezuela, with hundreds of political prisoners freed under Rodríguez and talks about reforming the regime-controlled supreme court taking place. But no date has been set for a fresh presidential election and Machado has been unable to return from exile. “Delcy’s been doing a fantastic job,” Trump told reporters last month, claiming Venezuela was “not really ready” for a vote.

Russia ‘losing 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit’

Russia is losing about 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit, western officials have said. While Russia is still acquiring new battlefield recruits at speed, with an estimated rate of 1,000 a day, in the last two months even this has not been sufficient to replace those killed or injured. “We estimate that the gap between the number of people Russia is losing to casualties and the number they’re being able to recruit is around 6,000 a month at the moment,” one western official said. “Putin’s response to this has been to escalate himself and to target civilian infrastructure and civilians in Ukraine, firing over 360 missiles since early July and exploiting Kyiv’s shortage of defence against ballistic missiles. It’s clear that Moscow intends to try and break Ukrainian morale by destroying its energy infrastructure this winter.” Such tactics are in part because Putin has limited options for overcoming the huge losses on the battlefield with more recruitment. Western officials believe further mobilisation would be a big risk both politically and economically, saying the last such event, in autumn 2022, saw about a million – often highly skilled – Russians leave the country, with less than half returning. It is also unclear whether the Russian military could absorb the several hundred thousand new recruits which would result, given a lack of equipment and officers. Ukraine has repeatedly attacked Russian targets connected to oil, creating fuel shortages, but has appealed repeatedly for more help from allies, both with offensive missiles and defence systems. Andy Burnham visited Kyiv on his first overseas trip as prime minister this week. He told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the UK would give Ukraine previously classified information on the British-manufactured components for long-range cruise missiles. Burnham has also urged the international community to do more to protect Ukraine against Russian attacks, particularly with more US-made Patriot interceptor missiles. He is expected to make this argument at next month’s UN general assembly in New York. In response, Russia has made repeated threats of retaliation, including talk of attacks on UK military targets both inside and outside Ukraine. The western officials said that while the threat from Russia remained very real, the situation had not changed, and the assessment was that “Putin absolutely wants to avoid a direct confrontation with Nato”. One official said: “We are seeing a continuation of hostile rhetoric and various accusations against the UK. This is absolutely consistent with longstanding Russian military doctrine, which is to use rhetoric to both exploit fears in adversaries and to influence decision-making. So this is not a new phenomenon.” Officials say Russia still has the capability to target the UK, with cyberattacks or physical attacks on civilian targets by proxies, for example on factories or warehouses. Last year, six men were jailed for their involvement in an attack ordered by Russia against a warehouse in east London housing aid to Ukraine. But officials said their assessment was that Putin would limit any such action to avoid more direct conflict with Nato. Putin’s overall aim in Ukraine, western officials believe, is to maintain a campaign of attrition, hoping that support from Ukraine’s allies will ebb away, particularly if governments are spooked by public alarm over Russian threats. Such threats should be seen, one official said, as attempts to create a “fractured and more vulnerable Europe”. Another said: “It’s important to keep in mind that this is not new. Russia has invoked the threat of the possible use of nuclear weapons numerous times in recent years to try to scare us into ending support for Ukraine.”

At least 93,000 ‘in great need’ after Nepal-Tibet flash floods, says Red Cross

The Red Cross has said at least 93,000 people may have been affected by Wednesday’s flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border, which have killed nearly 600 people, left another 1,900 missing, and triggered 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. “The trauma of this event is enormous,” David Fisher, the IFRC head of delegation for Nepal, said on Friday. “Thousands of homes have been destroyed or suffered significant damage. We believe that at least 93,000 people have been affected and are in great need. The death toll is very high and unfortunately likely to continue to rise.” The deadly floods occurred on Wednesday morning after an enormous section ⁠of a glacier in the Himalayas broke loose and crashed on to the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park, unleashing a massive surge of water, mud, rock and ice that thundered down rivers and valleys. The resulting floods obliterated villages and destroyed power stations, roads and bridges. Nepal’s steep slopes and the lush valleys below are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides, and extreme weather events, such as intense monsoons, and melting glaciers have become more common because of warming due to human-caused climate change. “The damage is just incredible,” Lila Pieters Yahia, the UN resident coordinator for Nepal, said on Friday, adding that more than 40 bridges had been destroyed or badly damaged and “over 40km of road completely destroyed”. By Friday afternoon, the death toll stood at 584 people: 579 in Nepal and five across the border in Tibet, China. Authorities in Nepal said 1,942 people were still missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals who were in the area to work, trek with guides or make a pilgrimage. Rescue teams have reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Indian 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. Rescuers were forced to suspend operations on Friday morning after a dam of debris overflowed on Friday, increasing the risk of further flooding. Residents in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, on the border with Tibet, were seen rushing up hillsides to escape a possible surge in the river, ⁠according to witnesses. The Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that a lake formed by piles of debris from the mudslide had begun overflowing on Friday, sending water towards the area where rescue teams were headed, and forcing a brief pause in operations. 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. Bidur, once a bustling town on the banks of the Trishuli, now lies in ruins. Most homes were washed away when mud, rocks and debris surged down the river valley early on Wednesday. Survivors described clinging to buildings and trees as the water rushed over them. The mangled concrete remains of a bank, a government office and an ATM booth were among the few structures left standing, although they were submerged in mud. Officials said there were bodies inside the buildings but it was too dangerous to recover them. Nearby, people gathered along the muddy road, calling out for lost relatives and trying to dig out what was left of their belongings. Most areas battered by the flash floods remained accessible only by army helicopter. At the Bidur army camp, from where much of the rescue effort was being coordinated, rescue and military helicopters flew in and out every five minutes, bringing in dozens of traumatised victims. Many said the floods had taken their loved ones, their homes and everything they owned in a matter of minutes. The international community is scrambling to get aid to flood-stricken parts of Nepal and Tibet. 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.” The Kathmandu Post reported that India, China, the US, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had asked the government to allow their search and rescue teams to assist in the operation. Dinesh Bhattarai, a former Nepali ⁠ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said the government’s reluctance to accept foreign assistance may be linked to sensitivities over Rasuwa district and its border with Tibet. “They may have thought about the locational sensitivity ‌of the region and decided not to accept foreign teams,” Bhattarai told Reuters. But Chhetri said Nepal’s own rescue teams were handling the operation and the decision to refuse foreign assistance had nothing to do with sensitivities. Scant information has emerged from Chinese authorities about the scale of the destruction in Tibet, the most tightly controlled part of China even under normal circumstances. Only brief, state-controlled media reports about the floods have been allowed to circulate in China and the authorities have confirmed only five deaths there. Chinese reports have focused on rescue efforts. With Agence France-Presse and Reuters