&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Nepal floods LIVE updates: Death toll rises to 469 as fresh flood threat looms")
Nepal floods live updates: The death toll from the catastrophic floods and landslides along the China-Nepal border has risen to 392, as authorities issued fresh warnings of another potentially devastating flood that could further complicate the search for more than 1,400 missing people.
Fresh flood threat slows rescue efforts
Rescue teams are racing against time after a torrent of freezing water, mud and debris tore through remote Himalayan settlements, destroying homes, bridges and dams and sweeping away vehicles.
Their work is now threatened by a lake formed behind massive piles of landslide debris. Chinese authorities warned late Thursday that it faces a “high risk of breaching and sending floodwaters downstream”. Nepal's Flood Forecasting Division also issued a “special notice”, urging extreme caution.
Soldiers and emergency workers have been using sniffer dogs, drones and other equipment to search areas buried beneath thick layers of mud.
Hundreds of tourists remain unaccounted for
Nepal has recovered 389 bodies, while 910 people, including 517 foreign tourists, remain out of contact. China says another 100 of its citizens are missing in Nepal.
Indians account for the largest group of missing foreign nationals. The United States said 90 of its citizens were also out of contact, while nationals from several other countries remain missing.
Across the border in Tibet, officials say hundreds are unaccounted for, while three deaths have been reported. Chinese authorities have evacuated hundreds of stranded tourists and local residents.
Glacial collapse triggered disaster
The US Geological Survey said the disaster was triggered by a glacial collapse, initially mistaken for a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. The resulting debris flow had “catastrophic” downstream impacts across Nepal and Tibet.
Environmental historian Ruth Gamble described the surge as being “like an inland tsunami”, travelling nearly 170 kilometres into Nepal.
Nepali army helicopter rescue teams were working Friday to rescue around 100 people trapped inside a tunnel at a hydropower project swamped by a devastating flood two days earlier.
"Our focus is in search and rescue of people... some people are trapped in the tunnel of Trishuli 3A hydropower project," Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP. The prime minister's office said in a statement that 350 people had been rescued from the area, but that 100 more were trapped.
Devastating floods on the Nepal-Tibet border region have killed at least 469 people, Nepali police said Friday, 48 hours after the disaster.
Chinese state media had earlier confirmed three dead, taking the total killed to at least 472. More than 1,400 people are missing, including hundreds of foreigners.
Rescuers have evacuated 555 stranded tourists from Tibet after a devastating mudslide on the China-Nepal border, Chinese state media reported Friday.
State broadcaster CCTV said that 499 local residents, as well as 555 tourists, had been transported out of the disaster zone as of Friday morning. It did not specify the tourists' nationalities.
The US State Department on Thursday said 90 Americans were missing after the Nepal floods, adding no US deaths had been reported.
"We're currently tracking 90 Americans who may be impacted by the flood, currently unaccounted for," a spokesperson said.
The State Department said it could confirm three Americans had been rescued and it was not aware of any US deaths.
Chinese authorities have warned that an artificial lake formed by a massive mudslide on the China-Nepal border is at "high risk" of breaching, raising fears of another surge of floodwater downstream as rescue teams continue searching for more than 1,400 missing people.
