Nepal-China death toll jumps to 472 amid fears of fresh flooding

The death toll from the devastating flash flood in the border region between Nepal and China has risen to at least 472, authorities said on Friday, as an overflowing lake in Tibet raised fears of further flooding in the disaster-hit region.

Nepalese police said on Friday that the death toll in the country had jumped to at least 469. China has so far reported three confirmed deaths.

Many of the bodies were reportedly found downstream in southern Nepal and along the border with India.

Nepalese police said 1,545 people had been rescued, many of them injured.

Police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle told dpa that officials still lacked a clear picture of the number of people missing, adding that it could take several days before the full scale of the disaster was known.

Dozens of bodies have yet to be identified, police said, partly because the force of the floodwaters, mud and debris left many victims badly disfigured or tore bodies apart.

Many foreign tourists remain missing. Nepal last put the number of missing people at 977, while China has reported 558 missing, including 260 foreigners.

China's state news agency Xinhua reported that 555 affected tourists and 499 local residents and construction workers had been evacuated from the disaster area in Tibet. Chinese technicians have also restored the telecommunications network in the area, which had collapsed.

Authorities on both sides of the border have warned of the possibility of fresh flooding from a newly formed lake created by landslides in the wake of the flood in Tibet.

"We have received information that a dam has burst on the Tibetan side," the Nepalese police said on Friday.

Security personnel, rescue teams and the local population in the affected area had been asked to remain vigilant and move to a safe place immediately, the statement added.

According to reports that cited the army, Nepalese rescue teams have temporarily suspended their operations.

Chinese rescue teams in Tibet had previously halted their search and rescue missions at the heavily damaged Gyirong border post for safety reasons.

Xu Qiang, a scientist at Chengdu University of Technology, said earlier on state television that an estimated 2 million cubic metres of water had accumulated in the lake.

Rain is forecast over the next three days, which, along with the risk of another flash flood, could hamper rescue efforts if access roads to the disaster area become impassable again.

On Wednesday, a flash flood surged from Nepal through the border region of south-western Tibet and into central Nepal along the Bhotekoshi river, leaving widespread destruction in its wake. Entire villages in Nepal were swept away, according to eyewitnesses.

The floods also swept away bridges and caused severe damage to dams and buildings. In China, a mudslide inundated the Gyirong border crossing, a key link to Nepal for tourism and trade.

The cause of the flash flood has not yet been fully established. One widely cited theory is that a glacial collapse on the Nepalese side triggered the surge of water and mud. The force was strong enough to register on earthquake monitoring instruments. Experts also said the narrow, steep river valley may have caused the floodwaters to build up to such a destructive level.