Nepal partially suspends search for over 5,200 missing after deadly floods

Nepal has partially suspended search and rescue operations, even as more than 5,200 people remain missing following devastating flash floods and mudslides along the Nepal-China border in August.

The government has suspended search and rescue operations in areas where there is no indication that survivors or missing people may be found, a Nepalese official told Anadolu on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He added that operations are continuing in key areas, including tunnels.

At least six hydropower projects on the Nepali side of the border were hit by flash floods. There were about 900 personnel deployed at the facilities.

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said 1,453 people have been killed, while 13,795 have been rescued. A total of 5,285 are missing, 636 of them foreigners.

On the Chinese side, the death toll remains at 43, with 519 missing, including 261 foreigners in Tibet, which Beijing calls the Xizang autonomous region.

The disaster struck on Aug. 26 when a glacier on Nepal’s Mount Langtang Lirung fractured at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,060 feet).

The fracture triggered an ice-rock avalanche that turned into a massive debris flow and swept through valleys along the border.

Floodwaters and mudslides devastated the Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and Kavre districts in Nepal, as well as the Kathmandu Valley. It also buried the Gyirong border crossing in Xizang.