Nepal’s disaster management agency announced on Monday that the death toll from flash floods that struck the country last week has risen to 903. Authorities intensified rescue efforts after catastrophic floods that swept through Nepal and Tibet killed at least 900 people and left more than 4,700 missing.
Nepalese Army spokesman Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet said rescue teams were continuing search and rescue operations for people trapped in mountainous areas, residential communities and river areas.
Multiple foreign rescue teams also joined local teams in searching for workers trapped inside tunnels belonging to hydroelectric power stations. Officials said at least 90 people were trapped in several such tunnels.
Nepal’s disaster management agency said the number of missing people in the country had reached 4,247, including 592 foreigners. In China, authorities said as of Sunday that 16 people had been killed and 546 remained missing.
Chinese state media reported that 261 of those missing were foreigners, including more than 100 Nepalese. The flash floods that swept through the region last Wednesday began after a massive iceberg collapsed at high altitudes in the Himalayas.
Scientists who studied satellite images said solid rock beneath a Himalayan glacier collapsed, causing part of the glacier to fall. The rockslide was so severe that it was recorded as a 5.2-magnitude seismic event.
Rocks and water resulting from the melting ice caused river levels in valleys below the region to rise, turning into torrents that carried buildings, bridges and large quantities of soil toward areas of Tibet and Nepal.
