95 dead, hundreds of tourists missing after catastrophic Nepal-China floods

At least 95 people are dead and hundreds of tourists, including foreign nationals, are missing after catastrophic flash flooding struck the Himalayan border region between Nepal and China on Wednesday (Aug. 26), Reuters reports.

The disaster has caused widespread destruction in Nepal, where rescue teams have recovered 95 bodies so far, according to police.

At least 341 foreign nationals, including travellers from India, the United States and the United Kingdom, are reported missing.

Local media reported that another 65 people were being treated in hospitals in the affected region and in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

The flooding struck communities along the Nepal-China border after a mudslide in the Himalayan region sent a massive surge of water downstream.

Television footage showed homes collapsing, vehicles floating in floodwaters and a metal bridge being swept away. Witnesses told Reuters that entire villages had been engulfed.

Helicopters have been deployed to rescue stranded residents, including people trapped on rooftops.

However, rescue helicopters were unable to land in the heavily affected communities of Syapru Besi and Timure in Nepal's mountainous Rasuwa district because the river was flowing above its normal course, officials said. Rasuwa has a population of roughly 50,000.

The exact cause of the disaster remains under investigation.

Nepal's foreign minister said an earthquake is believed to have triggered a major landslide, which subsequently blocked the Bhote Koshi river before sending a torrent of water downstream from China into Nepal.

It is also suspected that an earthquake in the region triggered an ice-rock avalanche on the Lhende Khola river in Nepal, contributing to the flooding.

Across the border in China's Tibet region, authorities have not yet announced a death toll, but state media has warned of "major casualties."

The disaster comes just over a year after deadly flooding struck the same Nepal-China border region.

In July 2025, flooding on the Bhote Koshi river killed nine people and left 24 others missing. That event also washed away a "Friendship Bridge" connecting Nepal and China, disrupting cross-border trade and transportation for months.

The Bhote Koshi originates in Tibet and flows into Nepal's Trishuli river, where Wednesday's flash flooding occurred.

Last year's flooding was caused by the draining of a supraglacial lake in Tibet, according to a regional climate monitor.

Search and rescue operations were continuing Wednesday as authorities on both sides of the border assessed the scale of the destruction.

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