Nepal floods: Missing persons count spikes to 4,247 as rescue ops enter Day 6

Nepal flood death toll rises to 903 as 4,247 remain missing

The death toll in the devastating flash floods in Nepal has climbed to 903, according to data released Monday by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA). Around 4,247 people remain missing, while 10,451 have been rescued.

Chitwan has recorded the highest number of deaths, with 272 casualties, including various human remains. Nawalparasi (East) has reported 207 deaths, followed by Nawalparasi (West) with 151, Nuwakot 95, Gorkha 62, Dhading 55, Tanahun 37 and Rasuwa 24.

The missing include 25 Nepal Police personnel, 45 Nepal Army personnel, 13 Armed Police Force personnel, 15 Customs Office personnel and three Immigration Office personnel. Rasuwa has 865 missing people and Nuwakot 1,548, according to DEOC data. Hydropower projects account for another 933 missing people, while Makwanpur has 65. Foreign nationals account for 592 missing people.

Rescue and relief work continues across affected areas. The Nepal Army has airlifted 252 foreigners and 3,344 Nepali nationals.

Army intensifies efforts to reach 42 unaccounted for at Trishuli-3A tunnel

Efforts have been intensified to reach people believed trapped inside the Upper Trishuli-3A hydropower project tunnel in flood-hit Nuwakot, using heavy equipment and blasting to widen an opening into the buried structure.

As many as 537 workers and employees remained unaccounted for at nine hydropower projects in Nepal’s flood-hit Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts – the Trishuli-3A hydropower project tunnel is one of them.

The operation at the Trishuli-3A site is focused on reaching 42 people reported out of contact at the 60 MW project, according to the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN).

The Nepal Electricity Authority has separately estimated that around 42 technical personnel were working on an overhaul of the underground powerhouse when they became trapped inside the tunnel, the OnlineKhabar news portal reported.

According to an update from the Nepal Prime Minister's Office, a joint 90-member rescue team has been deployed at the site, comprising 66 Nepali Army personnel, including a special search and rescue team with trained dogs, 18 Armed Police Force personnel and six Nepal Police personnel.

Rescue team creates opening at 'crown head'

The team reached the main section of the tunnel, known as the “crown head”, around 2 pm and created a 2-by-3-foot opening, the PMO said.

Rescuers descended through the opening using ropes and called out to those inside but received no response, it said.

Rescue efforts were being continued simultaneously with heavy equipment and blasting, while the opening was being widened to facilitate a faster and more effective operation, according to the PMO.

“Despite the difficult and risky conditions, the rescue team is working tirelessly around the clock,” it said.

The Nepali Army has also airlifted excavators and bulldozers to Battar in Nuwakot after dismantling the heavy machinery into sections for helicopter transport, according to the Nepal News web portal.

The tunnel mouth was subsequently located about 40 metres upstream from the vertical hole and about eight metres below it, according to the Ratopati news portal.

However, rescuers have yet to reach the workers believed to be trapped inside.

361 rescued, 537 unaccounted for 

Across nine hydropower projects in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, 537 workers and employees remain unaccounted for, according to IPPAN data cited by local media.

IPPAN said 898 workers and employees at the nine projects were initially reported out of contact following the August 26 floods, of whom 361 have been rescued.

The 216 MW Upper Trishuli-1 project in Rasuwa has the largest number of workers still unaccounted for. Around 300 are still believed to be trapped inside the project's tunnel.

At the 22 MW Chilime Hydropower Project, IPPAN said eight people remained unaccounted for, while project officials said six employees were believed to be trapped inside a tunnel.

International assistance has meanwhile been deployed to support Nepal's search and rescue efforts.

Technical team at work 

An 11-member Indian technical team comprising doctors, paramedics and tunnel engineers carried out reconnaissance of hydropower tunnels in the flood-affected areas, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said.

The team arrived in Kathmandu on Friday and was flown to Chilime and Langtang in coordination with the Nepali Army and Armed Police Force, according to the Kathmandu Post.

Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava said the Indian experts conducted reconnaissance of tunnels in the Chilime and Langtang power plant areas along with the Nepali Army.

OnlineKhabar reported on Sunday that the Indian technical and tunnel rescue team had reached Chilime to begin search and rescue operations.

A separate 22-member Indian Army team was also deployed to support the operation, it said.

A six-member Chinese tunnel expert team has also arrived in Nepal to assist with rescue efforts. The Himalayan Times reported that Chinese experts had reached the Trishuli area by helicopter and were coordinating with a Nepali Army technical team to assess the tunnel at Upper Trishuli-3B and determine the feasibility of rescue operations.

The rescue efforts have been complicated by tunnels and access routes buried under mud and debris, damaged infrastructure, difficult terrain and hazardous conditions following the floods. 

Hotel where we ate breakfast swept away moments later, pilgrim recalls Nepal floods horror

For a group of 43 pilgrims from Maharashtra, the journey back from Nepal felt like a blessing, yet it was shadowed by the chilling memory that the hotel where they had just sat down for breakfast was swept away moments later in the flash floods.

Returning home after narrowly escaping the tragedy, they carried the haunting realisation of how close they had come to disaster.

The 43 pilgrims from Maharashtra, including residents of Thane, returned to Mumbai on Sunday after being stranded amidst flash floods and landslides along the Nepal-China border during their Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

The floods washed away the hotel where they had stayed and some of its staff members lost their lives, one of the pilgrims said.

"When we learned that the hotel, where we had eaten our breakfast a little while earlier, had been swept away along with its staff members, we were left completely numb," said Prakash Shantaram Mane, a Kalyan resident who had travelled with his wife Pratibha.

He expressed profound relief upon landing in Mumbai.

The pilgrims, who had travelled through Rudra Tour and Travels, were stuck in the Timure border area shortly after crossing into China. Following instructions from Chinese authorities, restrictions were placed on movement, leaving pilgrims from around the world stranded in Saga, Mane said.

Some of the pilgrims managed to establish contact with Abhijit Darekar, a close aide of Kalyan MP Dr Shrikant Shinde, he said.

The Emergency Control Room of the Maharashtra government and Thane District Collectorate were continuously tracking the group's location, a local official said here.

Thane Resident Deputy Collector Sandeep Mane, Kalyan tehsildar Vikas Gardukar and MLA Rajesh More maintained direct communication with the group.

The pilgrims, accompanied by nine Nepali tour staff, eventually returned to Kathmandu on August 29 before boarding a Nepal Airlines flight to Mumbai on Sunday afternoon. 

Nepal volunteers launch clean-up drive

Volunteers from Likhu Rural Municipality are heading to Devighat to launch extensive rescue and cleanup operations following the recent flash floods in Nepal.

Nepal-China flash flood disaster exposes fragility of Hindu Kush Himalayas: UN climate chief

The glacial collapse and flash flood near the Nepal-China border are a devastating reminder of how fragile mountain environments can be, particularly in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said on Sunday.

He said scientists and local communities have been warning for years that the Hindu Kush Himalayas are at huge risk owing to climate change.

"We also know a warming climate, driven by humanity burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, is making tragedies like this one, and so many others around the world, much more likely, frequent and severe, with vulnerable communities often hardest hit," said Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"But the solutions to global heating are equally clear -- especially a faster global shift from fossil fuels to renewables and more investment in climate resilience," he added. 

Nepal floods: Indian forensic team in Kathmandu helps in analysis of DNA samples

A 19-member specialised forensics team from India began functioning in Kathmandu on Sunday to help augment the analysis of DNA samples for the identification of victims' mortal remains, in the wake of the devastating flash floods in Nepal, officials said. The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Randhir Jaiswal, shared the update in a post on X.

"This team will help augment the analysis of DNA samples in Nepal, for identification of the mortal remains of the victims," the statement said.

"The Ambassador of India to Nepal met and briefed the forensics team. Subsequently, the team had discussions with counterparts in Nepal Police's Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Kathmandu and the Forensics Department of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital," it said. 

4 more bodies recovered from Gandak river in UP's Kushinagar; 13 so far

Four more bodies were recovered from the Gandak river in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar district after they apparently drifted into Indian territory from Nepal amid the devastating floods in the neighbouring country, officials said on Sunday.

A total of 13 bodies have been recovered in the district over the past four days, with four recovered on Sunday alone, they said.

On Sunday, an SDRF team recovered the bodies of two women and two men near Bhediyari Thokar No. 3 of the Chhitauni embankment.

The SDRF team was conducting surveillance on the river near Bhediyari Thokar No. 3 when they spotted four bodies in the water. The team entered the river and retrieved the bodies. On Saturday, SDRF surveillance teams had spotted and recovered three bodies floating in the river. Officials in the neighbouring district of Nepal have been informed about the recovered bodies.

49 TN pilgrims were on China side when disaster struck, missing: Chennai tour operator

As many as 49 yatris from Tamil Nadu, after completing the Kailash pilgrimage, were on the China side when the flash floods struck and they are among the missing, the owner of a travel firm who organised the yatra said here on Sunday.

Expressing deep concern about the missing pilgrims, Maravel Nagappan, the firm owner, said that over 40 yatris from Tamil Nadu had completed the Kailash yatra and were waiting to enter Nepal from the China side when the disaster struck on August 26, 2026.

The travel firm owner requested the Central government to get information about the untraceable yatris from the Chinese authorities.

The Kailash yatra, he organised commenced on August 14, he said.

Nagappan said his son Sathyanarayana led the team of yatris and he had spoken just before the disaster struck to Neapalese associates to keep vehicles ready at their end for them.

Nagappan told reporters that his son had conveyed to the Nepalese travel associates that they may clear the immigration formalaities after two hours and accordingly, vehicles should be made available at the Nepal side.

The firm owner said: "So, our group of 49 people were 100 per cent on the China side at that time. So, we request our government, Indian government to take action quickly and get information from China." At the time of the disaster, about 11 teams of Indian yatris, including those from Tamil Nadu, were waiting to enter China from the Nepal side.

"You would have seen video clips of two out of three buses getting swept away in the floods and they were among those waiting to enter China," he said.

At the same time, three teams were waiting to exit China and enter Nepal.