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Nepal-Tibet flash flood live updates: death toll rises to 469, police say; debris-clogged river at risk of flooding again

The family of two Sydney boys who went missing with their parents in Nepal say they remain hopeful they will be found safe. The four were taking part in a pilgrimage when the flood hit and are among 39 Australians identified as missing in the region. Nino Bucci and Henry Belot report that the mother’s sister Vaishnavi said she had lost contact with the family shortly after breakfast on the morning of the flood. They planned to head towards an immigration checkpoint on the Tibet-Nepal border soon after, as part of the group of 15 Australians trekking as part of a tour. Vaishnavi told the Guardian: Just like everyone else that’s part of that group, we’re really worried, but hopeful. 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. The full report is here:

Number of Australians missing in Nepal floods climbs as Greens criticise Labor’s aid package

Penny Wong has confirmed the number of Australians missing in the devastating Nepal floods has increased from 35 to 39 and announced a $5m support package. “We understand at least 39 Australians are among those reported missing. Australian officials are working urgently to confirm their welfare and provide assistance to those affected,” Wong said in a statement on Friday morning. Anthony Albanese said Australia was sending crisis and humanitarian response specialists to the region to help. “We’re also providing humanitarian assistance including food, emergency shelter and medical support,” the prime minister said in a post to social media on Friday morning. “Our thoughts are with the loved ones of those affected as we urgently work to confirm the welfare of missing Australians.” More than 1,400 people remain missing, and 392 have been confirmed as killed after massive flash floods and landslides tore through the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river basins on the Nepal-Tibet border. Nepal’s disaster agency said 910 people were unaccounted for, including at least 517 foreigners. Across the border with Tibet, China said 558 people – including 260 foreigners – were missing. Together, the total missing on both sides of the border is 1,468. Those figures are likely to fluctuate – both up and down – in coming days, as rescue efforts continue, and a clearer picture of the devastation emerges. Speaking on ABC radio, Wong said the four additional Australians missing had been travelling separately to the Himalayan Glacier Adventures tour and Kathmandu Holiday Tours and Travel group. She said a further increase in the number of Australians missing was an “unfortunate possibility”. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “I know this is an extremely distressing time for those who have loved ones unaccounted for and we are thinking of them,” she said. In her earlier statement, Wong also said the government was “rapidly mobilising consular and humanitarian support in response to the catastrophic floods along the Nepal-China border, including through a $5 million assistance package for affected communities”. She said the government would send an initial team of three humanitarian response specialists “within the next 48 hours’” to help 20 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 support package received bipartisan support on Friday morning, with both the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, and Coalition MP Ted O’Brien saying they supported the move. But David Shoebridge, the Greens’ spokesperson on foreign affairs, told RN Breakfast earlier the Australian commitment of $5m for affected communities in Nepal “won’t come close to touching the sides” of the calamity. Shoebridge said the Greens were devastated by the sheer disaster in the region, calling it a genuine global tragedy. “I think Australia needs to step up and really commit to helping rebuild,” he told RN. “This is a country with minimal spare resources. Life is tough in Nepal at most times, but I don’t think $5m comes close to meeting the scale.” Of the $5m Wong said $2m would go to the World Food Programme, $2m to Australian NGOs through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership “to provide support such as emergency shelter, hygiene kits, blankets, medical support and psychosocial support”, and $1m to the Emergency Action Alliance to support locally-led recovery. “Australians wishing to donate should visit the Emergency Action Alliance webpage,” Wong said. Dr Soniya Rijal, a Nepali postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney, has expertise on disaster management and community response. She said it was impossible, at this early stage, to know how many people had been impacted by the disaster: “it’s possible the impact could be even more devastating than the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015”. “I’ve heard people were notifying neighbours to leave before the flooding hit but, because there was no rain leading to the flash floods, many of these warnings weren’t taken seriously. What makes this disaster unusual is that it was so sudden, coming without warning.” Rijal said local knowledge would be critical in finding and rescuing survivors safely. “Nepal is a very collective society and locals will have a better idea of how to locate missing people than those without local knowledge.” King Charles has said he and Queen Camilla were “heartbroken” by the devastating flooding. “We send our most profound sympathy to all those who have so tragically lost their loved ones and we feel deeply for the many families awaiting anxiously the news of friends and relations,” he said in a statement. “Our hearts go out also to the families of all the police and armed forces personnel who lost their lives while carrying out their courageous duty in the service of others.” Overnight, former Australian race discrimination commissioner Chin Tan was among members of Nepalese community who gathered at the Australian Nepalese Multicultural Centre to grieve the disaster. Families gathered for prayers and held a minute’s silence for those lost to the floods, laying candles beside a hand-crafted display of dyed rice reading “pray for Nepal”. “Today, all Australians are Nepalis, because our grief is yours,” Tan said. The diaspora was “united in grief, hope and prayer”, the secretary of the centre, Sudhir Shakya, told the event, held north-west of Melbourne. “Behind every number is a person – a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a relative, a friend, and someone deeply loved,” he said. Australia’s Nepali diaspora - more than 200,000 people across the country - are planning a series of vigils in coming days. Governments, councils, NGOs, and community organisations have led an outpouring of condolences. Merri-Bek City Council in Melbourne’s northern suburbs is home to the largest Nepali community in Victoria. “Council extends its deepest sympathies to the families, friends and communities of the Australians who have lost their lives, and to everyone affected by this tragic event,” the council said in a statement. “We also acknowledge the profound impact on people across our community with connections to Nepal … and people who are worried about family, friends and loved ones.” Australians in need of emergency consular assistance have been advised to contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s consular emergency centre on 1300 555 135, or +61 2 6261 3305 (if calling from overseas). – with AAP

South Korea to re-examine 310,000 missing person cases after fake record scandal

South Korean police will re-examine about 310,000 missing persons cases closed over the past three years, prompted by a scandal in which an officer was arrested on suspicion of falsifying records to close files on two people who were later found dead. The case has drawn national attention, with President Lee Jae Myung ordering an investigation into the police handling of it and telling the force to draw up a reform plan. The interior minister, Yun Hojung, apologised to the public on Wednesday, saying the case had exposed a structural flaw in the way police handle missing persons. The scandal has renewed scrutiny of how South Korea handles missing adults. More than 70,000 were reported missing last year, with 99.7% of cases closed without a full-scale search. Of those, 931 people were found dead. Under Korean law, only children, autistic people, and people with dementia or mental disabilities are formally treated as missing. That status allows police to request phone location data, issue emergency alerts to every phone in the area and match family DNA. Everyone else is classified as a runaway, with none of those tools automatically available. The arrested officer worked on the missing persons team at Jeju Western police station on the southern holiday island. He is accused of closing the file on a 37-year-old woman, Jang Mi-ran, about two and a half hours after her partner reported her missing in mid-May. The officer allegedly told him he had contacted her and that she did not want her location disclosed, but police say they found no record of such a call. Her body was found on Monday in a palm farm about 400 metres from where she had been staying, 104 days after she was last seen. Police have not established a cause of death. The same officer is also accused of closing the case of a man in his 60s on the day his family reported him missing in early July. His body was found on Saturday. Separately, two other people reported missing in Jeju were found dead. The officer has denied wrongdoing, saying he had contacted the two missing people before closing the cases, according to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency. He was arrested this week and faces charges including dereliction of duty and falsifying official electronic records. The review is due to be completed by November, the Yonhap news agency reported, with any cases suspected of improper handling to be reopened. In the past decade, politicians have introduced more than 10 bills to extend search powers to missing adults, but none has passed. Critics say adults should be free to disappear if they choose and warn that police tracking powers would be exploited by creditors chasing debtors and by abusers looking for partners who have fled.

Warning of fresh danger from rising lake water in Nepal – as it happened

We’re closing this page now and moving our live coverage of the Nepal-Tibet disaster to a new blog here. You can also see our fresh rundown of what we know on day three and our latest full report, as well as a visual guide to how the flooding unfolded. Thanks for following along.

‘We just want them to return’: relatives of Australians missing in Nepal floods wait anxiously for news of loved ones

The family of two Sydney boys who went missing with their parents in flash flooding in Nepal say they remain hopeful they will be found safe. 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 morning. The family of four are among 39 Australians identified as missing in the region, with the death toll climbing to nearly 400, and about 1,400 people, mostly tourists, yet to be accounted for. Shylaja’s younger sister, Vaishnavi, said that she had lost contact with the family shortly after breakfast on the morning of the flood. They planned to head towards an immigration checkpoint on the Tibet-Nepal border soon after, as part of the group of 15 Australians trekking as part of the Himalayan Glacier Adventures tour. “Just like everyone else that’s part of that group, we’re really worried, but hopeful,” Vaishnavi told the Guardian. “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. 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 who 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.” 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.” 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. Sagar Pandey, the founder and chief executive of Himalayan Glacier Adventures, 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, but like 1%; the rest I don’t have a hope, they are missing and missing and missing.” 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, said on Friday that the Australian government was “rapidly mobilising consular and humanitarian support in response” to the flooding. “We understand at least 39 Australians are among those reported missing. Australian officials are working urgently to confirm their welfare and provide assistance to those affected.” 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.”

Nepal-Tibet flash flood: what we know so far on day three

Rescue teams and military helicopters are searching for hundreds of missing people along the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border after a huge torrent of water and mud swept through communities following a glacier collapse on Wednesday. More than 470 people were killed, authorities in Nepal and China said, and more than 1,400 were missing, including hundreds of foreign citizens and pilgrims. Nepal and China both warned of new flooding ⁠risks in the Himalayas because of two lakes that have developed along debris-choked rivers on either side of their border. Nepal’s disaster authority said water levels were rising in a lake formed by debris clogging a flooded site and ‌that it was at risk of bursting its banks. It did not name the specific site. Chinese authorities warned that a newly formed lake at the confluence of the Tsogyal and the Purupqiangzangbu rivers was overflowing and might burst. More than 500 foreign citizens were among 826 people missing in Nepal, police and tourism ⁠officials said. Among those unaccounted for were 177 from India, 90 from the US, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada. Chinese state media said at least 558 were missing on the Tibet side of the border, of whom at least 260 were foreign nationals. The Red Cross said about 93,000 people might have been affected, while assessments continued in hard-to-reach areas. It launched an emergency appeal for $31m to respond to the disaster. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said he ordered the release of $2m from the UN’s central emergency response fund to help with medical care, shelter and water. US president Donald Trump said the flooding was terrible to see, describing how “strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks”. Nepalese officials said dozens of bridges were destroyed and nearly 40km of roads damaged, complicating search efforts. The Nepalese army had rescued more than 100 people by helicopter, an army spokesperson said. Army teams also evacuated people trapped inside facilities linked to the Trishuli hydropower project, he said. Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for medical care. Rescuers found bodies in Nepal’s Chitwan district, hundreds of kilometres downstream from the hardest-hit areas. The Nepal Red Cross Society said the agency has shifted its focus from rescue to large-scale relief operations in the flood-hit districts. China’s premier, Li Qiang, arrived on Thursday in Gyirong to direct rescue efforts, alongside 500 military and paramilitary personnel.

Ukraine war briefing: Missiles shot down during long Russian attack wave

The Ukrainian military said it shot down seven ballistic missiles and 258 drones as Russia carried out a lengthy attack that extended over Wednesday night and well into Thursday. “Overnight, Russia carried out a massive strike against Ukraine, targeting ports, grain storage, energy, industry and other infrastructure with ballistic ⁠and hypersonic missiles and combat drones,” said the foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha. Commuters went to work in Kyiv to the boom of air defences firing at waves of ⁠drones, Reuters reported. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week ‌that Kyiv had received a small ‌batch of US-made Patriot interceptors that can shoot down ballistic missiles. In Kharkiv, one person was killed and two were injured in a lunchtime attack on a shopping centre, said the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov. The strikes also targeted a Kyiv-area retail distribution centre and a shipment hub for a toy company, their ⁠chief executives said. Chocolate firm Roshen, founded by former president Petro Poroshenko, said one of its warehouses outside Kyiv was destroyed. Russian strikes also hit industrial sites, energy facilities and other infrastructure in the central Poltava and southern Odesa regions, as well as the south-eastern city of Kryvyi Rih, officials said. A ⁠Russian attack on a thermal ⁠power plant ⁠in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson ⁠resulted in the loss of ⁠all of its generating ‌capacity, state ‌oil and gas company ‌Naftogaz said. “The Russians struck a purely civilian facility that provides heat to ‌a significant portion of Kherson’s residential buildings,” said the company’s CEO, Sergiy Fedorenko. The Kherson regional governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, called for people to leave the city if they could, “especially families with children and elderly people”. “Last night, Russian forces again attacked Kherson’s district heating plant with glide bombs … the facility sustained very serious damage. Kherson may find itself without electricity or heating not for hours or days but for a long period.” Six Russian drones crossed into the airspace of Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova, local authorities said, prompting the president, Maia Sandu, to “strongly condemn this intimidation”. One of them was found on Moldovan territory. A Russian serviceman was killed by a car bomb in St Petersburg on Thursday, officials said. His wife was injured. Throughout the war, assassinations have targeted key Russian military personnel, military-industrial figures and prominent supporters of the war effort – both within Russia and in occupied Ukraine. Kyiv’s security services including the SBU have claimed responsibility for some of the killings. The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont has written about how far Russia is having to go to import diesel and gasoline because of the damage Ukrainian strikes have done to its petroleum industry. So many refineries are damaged that Russian oil is being sent to Kazakhstan for processing into fuels that are shipped back. For the first time, Russia this week bought 200,000 barrels of gasoline from Turkey – the fifth confirmed seaborne delivery of vehicle fuel this summer, after previous shipments from India amounting to 1m barrels in total. “In the space of a summer,” Peter Beaumont writes, “Russia, once the world’s second-largest producer of crude oil, has been plunged into a desperate scramble to find sources of gasoline to plug the ever-growing holes in its refining capacity.” Russia has signed a deal with the Kondensat oil refinery in western Kazakhstan this week to process Russian crude, with 70% of the refined fuel shipped back to Russia – by rail according to reports, because there is no pipeline. Fuel imports from war ally Belarus this June increased by a factor of 141 compared with June 2025. The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden called on Thursday for the EU to look again at using frozen Russian central bank assets to finance Ukraine. The four countries have told the EU executive in a letter: “We believe now is the time to revert to the issue of how we can make further use of Russia’s immobilised assets for the benefit of Ukraine.” The EU has failed to strike a deal on tapping the roughly €200bn (£170bn/US$230bn) after objections from Belgium, where the vast bulk of the financial assets are held, that it could be deemed legally liable. EU countries instead loaned Ukraine €90bn. An ⁠arson attack planned by three suspects in eastern Slovakia targeted drone maker Skyeton, prosecutors said on Thursday. Skyeton, founded in Ukraine, says it produces drones for civilian and military use in Ukraine and other countries. “The attack was ⁠supposed to aim at the Skyeton company’s factory,” said a spokesperson for the regional prosecutor’s office in the eastern city of Presov. A German prosecutor told Reuters that a 26-year-old Latvian had ‌been detained in Hamburg ‌and extradition proceedings were under way. Slovak prosecutors said a ‌Latvian and a Ukrainian had been detained in Slovakia.

Russia says UK ‘playing with fire’ amid reports CIA chief has warned Kremlin not to attack Nato

Russia has said it could retaliate against the UK for its support of Kyiv by striking military targets inside and outside Ukraine, amid reports that the director of the CIA warned the Kremlin against attacking Nato during a secretive visit this week. Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, said on Monday the UK would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start ⁠its own production of Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles. France has also agreed to supply missile technology. Maria ⁠Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Thursday Britain and France were “playing ⁠with fire”. Responding to the latest Russian threats, a Ministry of Defence official reiterated UK support for Ukraine. “Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and we are committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion. Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this government to stand against Russian aggression, in Ukraine and against the UK and our allies,” they said. The Wall Street Journal reported that a visit by John Ratcliffe, the CIA chief, to Moscow on Tuesday had followed a US intelligence assessment that Russia could be planning to test Nato with a limited assault on an allied country. This could range from a cyber-attack to a small-scale incursion, probably in a Baltic nation. Russia has made frequent threats against Ukraine’s western allies during the war, including thinly veiled nuclear threats and others apparently aimed at diplomatic missions in Kyiv. Asked ‌to comment ‌on the reports of Ratcliffe’s visit – and despite Thursday morning’s threat against UK targets – Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said: “A lot of this kind of scare-story material is being published right now. Of course, it has ‌nothing to do with reality and nothing to do with the intentions of the Russian Federation.” The intense scrutiny around the Ratcliffe trip and Russia’s intentions comes amid a new report over shortfalls of missile interceptors available in Europe. A report by the Associated Press says the US military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, according to a US defence official in Europe and a Nato official, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in Nato countries to a potential Russian attack. The US defence official said the most concerning shortfall involved Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles. The Nato official confirmed the low inventories of Patriots among American and Nato forces in Europe. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters. Russia is believed to be contemplating a further escalation of its war with Ukraine after months of escalating Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s oil refining infrastructure and other sites, which are imposing an increasing economic toll. The Kremlin has adopted ever more bellicose rhetoric, much of it aimed at a domestic audience, as the war in Ukraine has been brought to its doorstep. In the space of a few days Russia has invoked the threat of its nuclear arsenal against Japan over its territorial claim to the disputed Kuril Islands. It has described relations with the US as a “crisis” and at a historic low point. Ratcliffe’s reported warning mirrored one made by his predecessor, William Burns, in 2021 before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – which Moscow also denied it was contemplating. Concerns over Moscow’s intentions have been increasing amid a rise in incidents of Russian hybrid warfare attributed to Moscow across Europe, from cyber-attacks and drones to arson, at facilities associated with supporting Ukraine’s war efforts. Russia and the US have tried to play down Ratcliffe’s meeting with his Russian counterparts: Trump on Wednesday described the visit as “semi routine”. However, the unusual nature of the encounter has caused intense speculation in the west and Russia. The US president continued to play down the encounter on Thursday, telling Axios that Ratcliffe had arrived in Moscow with “no message” and claiming there was “nothing unusual” about the meeting. Asked later by reporters about reports about the CIA director Ratcliffe had delivered a warning to Russia, Trump replied: “I don’t want to comment on that, but they’re not going to attack.” Nato countries neighbouring Russia have moved quickly to increase their military readiness. Poland this week announced it had taken delivery of its first shipment of South Korean Black Panther main battle tanks, which will be deployed near the border with Russia’s Kaliningrad region. Cezary Tomczyk, Poland’s deputy defence minister, said this month Warsaw was preparing for the possibility of a full-scale conflict. Tomczyk told Super Express media: “We are preparing for war, hoping it never happens.”