The death toll from severe flash floods in Nepal's mountainous border region with China has risen to at least 157, police said on Wednesday, with hundreds of people still missing in Nepal and neighbouring Tibet.
Nepalese police announced the updated death toll on the platform X. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for, including more than 400 Nepalese and foreign travellers as well as police officers and soldiers.
A senior official at Nepal Police headquarters in Kathmandu, speaking to dpa on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the number of missing could be "in the thousands" based on a preliminary assessment, though complete data was still being gathered.
"Gathering complete information itself is challenging as many areas remained cut off from communication and roads throughout the day," the officer said.
According to a report in The Kathmandu Post, the flooding occurred after an ice avalanche on the Chinese side of the border blocked a tributary of the Bhotekoshi river. A temporary lake formed behind the blockage and subsequently overflowed, the newspaper reported.
The floods caused widespread destruction to communities and infrastructure along the Bhotekoshi, which originates in the highlands of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and flows through Nepal's Bagmati province.
Television footage and videos shared on social media showed homes, hydropower facilities and roads destroyed, bridges swept away and entire villages inundated, with the Rasuwa district hardest hit. Dramatic surveillance footage showed a border crossing with China being wiped out by a massive wave of water and mud.
The floods destroyed at least 19 road bridges and around 40 kilometres of paved roads, according to figures from the Nepalese government.
The Nepal Tourism Board said earlier that most of the missing travellers were from neighbouring India, citing preliminary figures from travel and trekking agencies operating tours in the affected region.
The army and other security forces were deployed in rescue operations.
China reported at least three deaths and 265 people missing in Gyirong county in south-western Tibet, according to state media. The exact number of missing people was still being determined and rescue operations were continuing.
The mud and floodwaters cut roads leading to the border crossing as well as electricity supplies and communications, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
China dispatched rescue teams with heavy equipment to the area, raised its disaster alert level and allocated emergency funds to the affected region.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to find the missing and move people in affected areas to safety, according to Xinhua. He also called for stronger early-warning systems and sent senior Communist Party official Zhang Guoqing to the region to oversee rescue efforts.