Hundreds reported missing after flash flood on Nepal border with China

{"text":[[{"start":9.56,"text":"Hundreds of people have been reported missing and at least 160 confirmed dead after a huge flash flood swept through settlements on Nepal’s border with China on Wednesday."}],[{"start":18.12,"text":"Nepal police said 157 deaths had been confirmed from what Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah called an “unexpected thunderbolt of a natural disaster” on the Bhote Koshi, a river in the mountainous district of Rasuwa bordering Tibet."}],[{"start":32.8,"text":"The prime minister’s office said at least 85 security personnel, including from the army and police, were missing, while authorities had been unable to locate 484 tourists — 391 of them from other countries — as well as 60 employees at power projects in the affected area."}],[{"start":48.84,"text":"In China, state news agency Xinhua said that by Wednesday evening, three deaths had been confirmed with 265 people missing from the vicinity of the Gyirong crossing on the country’s border with Nepal."}],[{"start":60.84,"text":"Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier ordered “all-out” search and rescue efforts in the area after state media said the disaster had caused “severe casualties”."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":69.8,"text":"Shah said the Nepali government had “mobilised all its forces and mechanisms in thousands of rescue operations without delay”. Nepali police urged local people to “remain highly vigilant and stay in safe locations until further notice”."}],[{"start":83.96,"text":"Images shared by Nepali authorities showed floodwaters wiping out buildings, bridges and roads. The prime minister’s office said 19 bridges and 40km of roads had been damaged."}],[{"start":95.48,"text":"Online portal Nepal News quoted witness Bhawani Prasad Neupane in Timure, a village south of the border, as saying the approach of the flood felt “like an earthquake” and that it had swept away a school, army barracks and police office."}],[{"start":109.08,"text":"“Right before our eyes, the market and the settlement were devastated,” Nuepane said."}],[{"start":113.92,"text":"Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said an initial study of satellite images indicated that the flood had been caused by a landslide of ice and rock approximately 20km north-east of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing along the border with China."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":128.52,"text":"Nepal’s foreign minister Shisir Khanal told parliament on Wednesday that an earthquake had reportedly struck Tibet at 8.37am Nepali time, and the flash flood was reported three minutes later."}],[{"start":139.88,"text":"However, the US Geological Survey said additional analysis had shown that the earthquake was actually generated by a landslide."}],[{"start":147.52,"text":"A deadly flash flood on the Bhote Koshi last year was traced to a glacier lake."}],[{"start":152.48,"text":"The Nepal Tourism Board said more than 100 of the tourists reported missing were from India, with others from the UK, Malaysia and elsewhere."}],[{"start":160.96,"text":"India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had offered Shah his condolences for the loss of lives."}],[{"start":166.8,"text":"“India is co-ordinating all possible humanitarian assistance to Nepal. Our teams are co-ordinating closely on rescue and relief efforts,” Modi wrote in a post on social media site X."}],[{"start":177.36,"text":"Chinese local authorities said roads, communications and power supplies from Tibet to the Gyirong border crossing had been cut off by the disaster."}],[{"start":186.6,"text":"Cartography by Steven Bernard"}],[{"start":193.12,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787793067_6911.mp3"}