Nepal: China confirms number of dead and missing following floods

China has confirmed that 43 people are dead and 519 still missing after flash floods hit Nepal and Tibet over a week ago.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that 261 of those were foreigners.

The floods have so far killed more than 1,300 people on both sides of the border, with 5,000 still missing, according to Nepal's disaster management agency.

The floods are likely to have been caused by a glacier collapse on the Nepal side of the border, according to experts.

The Gyirong border crossing separating China's Tibet and Nepal was destroyed by a tsunami-like mudslide during the floods.

It had been China's main border crossing with Nepal for over a decade, after a 2015 earthquake in Nepal badly damaged an alternative crossing farther east.

An earlier glacial flood last year shut down the port between July and January.

Video and images shot at the border crossing over the weekend showed no trace of the five-storey Chinese customs building that ​had stood at the border before the disaster.

Rescue workers have divided the search area into seven zones, officials told Reuters, with three areas still to be searched.

On Saturday, emergency crews in Nepal rescued a Chinese worker who had been in a tunnel linked to a hydropower station.

Gyirong County sits at an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters, though the port itself lies lower, at around 1,800 meters.

Risk of landslides, poor weather and deep ⁠mud has further complicated rescue and recovery efforts.

The only land route into Gyirong was restored by ​Wednesday morning, allowing China to bring in heavy equipment to aid recovery and future rebuilding.

State media ​has shown workers restoring power to the area by sinking temporary electric poles to reconnect it to the ​grid.

Route for pilgrims

As well as a trading point, in recent years the port had also become a crossing point for thousands of Hindu pilgrims.

Many Hindus travel through Nepal to Mount Kailash, a high-altitude site in Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists.

Hindus ​believe it to be the eternal home of Lord Shiva and his wife Parvati.

Many of the foreign nationals still missing in Tibet were pilgrims with extended families in India, diplomats in Beijing have ‌said.

There are 49 Indian citizens among ​the missing.

(c) Sky News 2026: Nepal: China confirms number of dead and missing following floods