The Nepal flood death toll has risen to 359 as the search continues for dozens of missing Britons.
Rescuers have continued to search for survivors in the debris-strewn valleys and hillsides of Nepal today as more than 1,000 people remain missing in the Himalayan country and neighbouring China.
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A wall of ice, mud and rock collapsed into a mountain river, triggering a catastrophic flash flood.
Authorities in Nepal used helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands cut off in towns and valleys after Wednesday’s disaster swept a road thronged by trekkers and pilgrims that links Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet.
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Local media put the death toll at 359, with dozens of bodies swept down into the plains from where they were being recovered.
Nepal’s Home Minister Sudhan Gurung said the focus remained on finding survivors as rescue teams located 100 missing Indian visitors, mostly pilgrims, and 25 Chinese workers in the worst-hit region around Trishuli.
More than 650 foreigners were still unaccounted for while Nepali authorities were yet to determine the number of locals missing.
The Red Cross said that entire villages had been destroyed and impassable roads and bridges had left communities cut off.
The full scale of the disaster remains unclear, it added.
“It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us,” said Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor being treated in a Nepali hospital.
“As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher. When I saw it enter our home, I tried to grab my wife’s hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud.”
A helicopter ferried him to safety four hours later.
He added: “My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.”
The tally of missing in Tibet’s Gyirong county was 558, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Thursday, including 260 foreign nationals.
China said the death toll stayed at three.
The missing foreigners in Nepal were from more than two dozen countries, including 288 from India, 63 from the United States, 51 from Malaysia, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain, and 25 from Canada.
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