Catastrophic floods kill over 390 in Nepal and Tibet, with more than 1,400 missing
Aug 28, 2026 | Source: AP News
DEVIGHAT, Nepal (AP) — Rescue teams and military helicopters searched Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the mountainous Nepal-China border, where a deadly torrent of water and mud several stories high swept through communities a day earlier following a glacier collapse.
Videos of the disaster showed people running before the floodwaters swallowed them up and washed out buildings and bridges. More than 390 people were killed, according to authorities in Nepal and China, and more than 1,400 were missing, including hundreds of foreigners and pilgrims. Hundreds of others were displaced across the Himalayan region.
The lush valleys of the Himalayan mountain range — home to many of the world’s highest peaks and remaining glaciers — are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Melting glaciers have become more common because of human-caused climate change.
Images showed buildings and streets in Nepal’s hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud, debris hanging from trees and stunned survivors caked in mud. In Tibet’s Shigatse prefecture, a two-lane road running along a river was completely buried. Aerial footage also showed a lake had formed and expanded on the China-Nepal border, with authorities warning of a possible dam break.
Rajan Tamang, a restaurant owner in New York City, said he learned from family in Kathmandu that his mother and sister were among those who died, while many other relatives and friends remained missing.
“My family was just waking up, and they didn’t even get any information, and suddenly this flood came. Some of them are missing, some of them lost their life and only a few is alive,” he told The Associated Press after a vigil in New York.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the flooding was terrible to see, describing how “strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the U.S. spoke with Nepalese leaders and offered to provide “anything they want.”
The torrential floods that ran miles through mountains left at least 389 people dead and more than 460 injured in Nepal, according to police. Another 910 people are reported to be missing in Nepal. Authorities in Tibet, an autonomous region of China, reported at least three dead and 558 missing.
Lila Pieters Yahia, the U.N. resident coordinator in Nepal, said Nepal’s government had mobilized over 30,000 security personnel for search and rescue and “they’re working day and night.”
She told U.N. reporters in a video press conference from Kathmandu that over 35 bridges have been destroyed and about 40 kilometers (25 miles) of road have been damaged, making access to the flooded area difficult.
“The government has established a relief fund and already the World Bank, India, China and the Asian Development Bank have committed to contribute to it,” she said.
The Nepalese army has rescued more than 100 people by helicopter, army spokesperson Brig. Krishna Bhandari said.
Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for medical care.
Rescuers found bodies in Chitwan district hundreds of kilometers (miles) downstream from where the floodwaters originated, said Kiran Dutta, a government administrator in the district.
Bishal Kumar Bhandari, chairman of the Nepal Red Cross Society, said the agency has shifted to providing relief supplies to people stranded by damaged roads and has also been helping to find bodies.
In Tibet, the roaring mudslide engulfed a multistory port building and swallowed a bus partially, according to Chinese state media.
China’s premier, Li Qiang, arrived Thursday in Gyirong to direct rescue efforts, alongside other officials, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Chinese authorities also warned that the newly formed lake at the confluence of the Tsogya and Gyirong rivers was at risk of bursting, and the water had to be drained.
The ministry warned there was a high risk the dam could fail, causing further flooding.
Many people in the disaster zone waited to hear whether their loved ones were alive.
Shova Shrestha, 33, has spent more than a day seeking word of her husband, Rajan Shrestha.
“I keep looking at each helicopter, hoping he will step out of it,” Shova said.
Among the missing are 517 foreigners, according to Nepal’s tourism board.
They include 178 people from India, more than 60 from the U.S. and people from 30 other countries, the board said.
Many of the missing may have been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for multiple religions.
Seventy-seven people from one pilgrimage group were caught in the floods at the immigration office in the border town of Gyirong, it said.
A visibly emotional Sadhguru said in a video that the group included 22 Americans and others from countries including Greece, Russia and Nepal.
The U.S. State Department said 90 Americans were unaccounted for in China and Nepal after the floods, and that it was working with local authorities.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday that 288 of the country’s people, including 12 dead, were stuck in Tibet, and that it was working to locate them.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said that nearly 100 Chinese citizens were among the missing, and that China had mobilized more than 2,000 rescuers for relief work.
The U.S. Geological Survey first reported a magnitude 4.4 earthquake early Wednesday, about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) underground in a remote, mountainous region of Tibet near Nepal.
The agency later updated its analysis to say the seismic event was instead a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse, according to Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center.
Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development said an analysis suggested a glacier on the Nepal-China border collapsed, blocking a river before the natural dam burst.
In an emailed statement, they said water levels at one point on the Trishuli River rose by 46 feet (14 meters) in two minutes, the lake emptied within minutes and the floodwaters reached the Nepal border within 10 minutes.
The increasingly unstable Himalayan ice system threatens communities, infrastructure and water supplies across the region, said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, a climate and disaster specialist at the center.
The region saw similar flash floods in August 2025, when a glacial lake in Tibet overflowed and sent torrents of water downstream into Nepal, killing at least 11 people.
Kafle reported from Kathmandu, Nepal. Associated Press journalists Upendra Mansingh in Nuwakot; Edith Lederer in New York; Matthew Lee, Collin Binkley and Fu Ting in Washington; Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Utah contributed to this report.
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