Nepal flash floods: Toll hits 939 as 4,000 remain missing after ice collapse

Kathmandu,UPDATED: Aug 31, 2026 21:52 IST

Nepal's flash flood death toll rose to 939 on Monday, with around 4,000 people still missing and bodies continuing to be recovered, authorities said. More than 10,000 people have been rescued so far, but search teams are still trying to reach those stranded amid intermittent rain, swollen rivers, and damaged roads and bridges.

The floods, triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal. The disaster also killed 16 people on the Chinese side, while nearly 550 people remain missing in Tibet, according to Chinese media reports.

The Bhotekoshi River carried the floodwaters downstream, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges, and damaging hydropower projects. Authorities said rescue teams are trying to trace 639 workers and employees at hydropower project sites in Nepal's flood-hit areas, with many believed to be trapped in tunnels. A controlled blast was carried out at one site as rescuers struggled to access a blocked tunnel. Expert teams from India and China are assisting in these operations.

Kathmandu has sought additional international support, including specialised equipment and technical assistance for tunnel rescue and forensic work. Nepal foreign ministry spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri said at a press briefing on Monday that the country has sought essential non-food items and services such as freezers, DNA testing kits and LiDAR from the US, relief-specific items such as DVI from Singapore, and belly bridges and high-capacity drones from China and Singapore. Nepal has so far received airtight bags for the management of bodies, while more are being delivered. A team of 18 forensic experts from India, specialising in DNA analysis, has been in Nepal since Saturday to assist officials as the toll rises.

The Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said 279 bodies were recovered in Chitawan district, 216 in Nawalparasi East, 168 in Nawalparasi West, 95 in Nuwakot, 65 in Gorkha, 55 in Dhading, 38 in Tanahu and 23 in Rasuwa. Hospitals across Nepal have been seeing crowds of people searching for missing relatives, with the focus increasingly shifting to identifying the dead. Photographs have been pasted outside hospital walls, where large gatherings were seen scanning them. Authorities said only a few dozen of the hundreds of recovered bodies had been identified till Monday, as many remains were badly decomposed, mutilated or otherwise difficult to recognise after prolonged exposure to floodwaters.

Of the 3,925 people still missing in Nepal, at least 590 are foreigners from 39 countries, including India, officials said on Monday. The missing also include 83 security personnel. India's Ministry of External Affairs said on Saturday that more than 275 Indians and 128 persons of Indian origin remained missing or non-contactable in Nepal. On Sunday, the ministry said on X that 149 people had been rescued.

Officials said the 10,451 people rescued from Nepal's flood-affected areas till Monday included locals and tourists from several countries, including India, the US, China, Russia, the UK, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Malta, Turkiye, Switzerland and Portugal. The Nepalese government has mobilised more than 21,000 security personnel for search and rescue operations, while helicopters have been making repeated sorties to evacuate stranded people and deliver relief supplies.

Nineteen motorable bridges and several highways and arterial roads were washed away, including Nepal's main land trade link with China and the Rasuwagadhi border crossing between the two countries. On Monday, authorities said a landslide briefly blocked the Budhi Gandaki River in Gorkha district before water flow resumed, while injured people rescued from flood-hit Rasuwa continued to receive treatment in Kathmandu.

Nepal is also dealing with misinformation linked to the disaster, as fake and AI-generated visuals spread widely on social media, prompting the government to order 72 users to remove inappropriate content in recent days. The Nepal Press Council has opened a dedicated portal called Special Complaints on the Bhotekoshi Incident for the public to report misinformation and graphic material related to the floods. According to The Kathmandu Post, while some videos and images circulating online were genuine, fact-checkers found that several were taken from disasters in other countries, recycled from earlier events, or generated or manipulated using artificial intelligence. Overall, Nepal continues to face a worsening toll, a large number of missing people, complex rescue work and growing challenges in identifying the dead after the August 26 flash floods.

With PTI Inputs

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