The death toll following a glacier collapse that unleashed a catastrophic mudslide across the Himalayas neared 800 people, authorities said on Aug. 30, as thousands of people remain missing.
Nepal's disaster authority said 781 people had died, with 2,502 missing and Chinese officials added that 16 people had died with 546 missing.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Nepalese counterpart during an Aug. 29 telephone call that the mudslide was their "most severe cross-border disaster" in recent years and that rescue operations had risen to an unprecedented level of difficulty and complexity, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Dozens of Americans are included in the nearly 600 foreign nationals reported as missing by Nepal's tourism board. The
board said in an Aug. 30 statement posted to social media that two Americans had been rescued and that it was "in contact" with a third. Chinese authorities said 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries were unaccounted for in Tibet, near a key border crossing with Nepal.
Authorities in Nepal have begun mass burials of hundreds of unidentified victims whose bodies had started to decompose. Nearly 100 bodies were buried on Aug. 29 and 100 more are planned to be buried on Aug. 30. DNA samples were collected and burial sites carefully documented in the hope that families may still be able to identify relatives later.
"We were left with no other option," said Ganesh Aryal, chief district officer of Chitwan, told Reuters. "Our concern was the risk to public health posed by the rapid decomposition of the bodies."
Rescuers face challenging terrain
The scale of the disaster has complicated rescue efforts across the rugged Himalayan terrain as rescuers face challenging weather conditions and rising water levels.
Rescue operations have been suspended several times since Aug. 28 because of bad weather and concerns that a lake formed across the Nepal-China border by the disaster could trigger fresh flooding after it began overflowing into Nepal's Lhende Khola and Trishuli Rivers.
Local police in Nepal told Reuters that residents and rescue workers had moved to higher ground after the Trishuli River's water levels rose on Aug. 30 following fresh rainfall, raising fears of additional flooding.
Chinese state media linked the disaster to the long-term effects of global warming. CCTV reported that the flood was a "new and prominent feature of cryosphere disasters" on the Tibetan plateau.
The Red Cross has estimated that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the disaster that unfolded at about 8:30 a.m. local time on Aug. 26. A huge landslide tore through a region near the border with Tibet, sending rock, mud and debris hurtling into riverside communities. Buildings and infrastructure were destroyed and swept away.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, Dinah Voyles Pulver and Natalie Neysa Alund – USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Death toll nears 800 in Nepal flood disaster
