At least eight people have been killed and hundreds of tourists — including British nationals — are feared missing after a glacier avalanche triggered devastating flash floods in Nepal, with rescue teams from India and China deployed to the worst-affected Rasuwa district.
Hundreds of individuals were listed as missing following an avalanche of ice and rock which triggered catastrophic flash floods across parts of Nepal on Wednesday, claiming at least eight lives and wreaking havoc on villages and infrastructure.
Authorities confirmed that 384 tourists, including 291 visitors from nations including India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, were unaccounted for in the aftermath of the flash flood.
The Bhotekoshi River burst its banks at approximately 9am on Wednesday (August 26), devastating numerous villages alongside roads and hydropower facilities, according to officials. Emergency warnings were issued to inhabitants of several Nepali districts, urging them to keep clear of the Bhotekoshi, Trishuli and Narayani riverbanks.
“We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue efforts,” stated Sasmit Pokharel, a spokesperson for the Nepali government.
Rasuwa district, the most severely impacted region, experienced comparable flash flooding to incidents last August, when a glacial lake in neighbouring Tibet burst due to elevated temperatures in the mountainous terrain. Nine individuals perished and vital infrastructure, including a bridge linking the two nations, sustained damage during that event.
Climate specialists at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development suggest that a glacier avalanche probably triggered Wednesday’s flash flood.
The Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi River, experienced peak flooding on Wednesday, they confirmed. “The Lhende Khola has flooded twice in fourteen months, this time triggered by an ice rock avalanche from a glacier on the Nepal side that blocked the river and released a sudden surge downstream,” explained Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at the climate research group.
“In a warming Himalaya, early warning is the first line of adaptation,” he added. The Himalayan region, spanning Nepal and numerous neighbouring nations including India, faces particular vulnerability to intense rainfall, flooding and landslides as the area is experiencing temperature rises faster than global averages due to human-induced climate change.
Studies have demonstrated that extreme weather phenomena, including heat waves, torrential downpours and glacier melting, have intensified across the region.
Scientists at the Kathmandu research group discovered earlier this year that glaciers throughout the Hindu Kush Himalaya region are melting at an increasing pace, with ice loss rates having doubled since 2000, chiefly driven by escalating global temperatures and climate change.
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