Over 1,300 Missing After Devastating Nepal-Tibet Floods, Including 3 Belgians
More than 1,300 people are missing and at least 292 have been confirmed dead after catastrophic flash floods swept through the border region between Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday morning, with three Belgian nationals among those unaccounted for. Scientists are investigating whether a massive glacier collapse in the Himalayas triggered the disaster.
The floods struck on the morning of 26 August, sending torrents of mud, water, and debris through the Trishuli River valley and its tributaries. Water levels on the Trishuli rose by as much as nine meters in just 30 minutes, according to experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, with the flood reaching settlements as high as 80 meters above the river level.
A Region Devastated
Entire villages were wiped out in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, while the Gyirong Port border crossing on the China-Nepal frontier was completely destroyed. A CCTV camera on the Chinese side captured a meters-high brown wave submerging a six-story building in seconds, and mud layers of 1.5 to 2 meters have been reported in some areas.
Nepalese police confirmed at least 289 deaths in Nepal as of Thursday afternoon, with 826 people still missing, according to The Kathmandu Post. In Tibet, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported at least three deaths and 558 missing, including 260 foreign nationals.
The missing include 644 tourists representing 33 different nationalities. The largest groups come from India (177-178), the United States (63-65), Ukraine (53), Malaysia (51), the United Kingdom (33), Canada (25), Australia (15-35), and Israel (12). Three Belgian nationals are among those unaccounted for, with 15 Belgians having been in the affected region.
The Belgian Connection
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot confirmed that the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been unable to contact three of the 15 Belgians known to be in the affected area. “We are taking the necessary steps and are in contact with their loved ones,” he stated.
Belgian travel guide Yves Camps, speaking from Kathmandu, described the scene: “Roads are destroyed, bridges are destroyed, whole villages have been swept away. It is therefore difficult to provide help there, unless with a helicopter.” He noted that the border post was particularly vulnerable because it opens at 9 AM, when many tourists gather to cross. “All those tourists were waiting there to cross, to start their journey or end their journey in Tibet. An incredible drama that unfolded there,” he told VRT NWS.
Flemish doctor Yenthe Peeters, volunteering in Nepal, was nearly caught in the disaster while traveling by bus along the affected river. Now helping at the T.U. Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, she described the immense need: “There is an enormous amount of extra help needed. Every year we come here, we see how great the needs are. The country simply has very little reserve and carrying capacity, and natural disasters like this really put that to the test. Everything they have slowly but surely been able to build up here has simply been washed away. You feel that desperation.”
Glacier Collapse Suspected as Cause
Initial reports from Nepal’s foreign minister suggested an earthquake may have triggered the flooding. However, the US Geological Survey revised its analysis, determining that the seismic event initially recorded as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake was actually the seismic energy from a glacial collapse and debris flow. No earthquake had occurred.
Scientists believe a glacier at approximately 5,000-5,200 meters altitude partially collapsed, with a chunk of ice roughly 2,000 feet wide falling about 4,000 feet vertically. The ice mass carried debris and rocks into the river, creating a chain reaction that produced the catastrophic flood wave.
Lander Van Tricht, a glaciologist at VUB and ETH Zurich, said: “Based on satellite images from before and after the disaster, we see that a very large part of that glacier is missing, about halfway down the valley.”
Prof Andrew Mackintosh, a glaciologist at Monash University, expressed alarm at the event’s scale: “These sorts of large glacier collapses are really shocking. It is hard as a glaciologist not be alarmed by these events that seem different to what we have observed previously.” He explained that “when a glacier of that scale collapses, it generates a lot of water, and then there is a cascading sequence of events… where the water and the sediment combine and bulks up and creates the flood.”
An international group of glacier researchers has said that while a glacial collapse was certainly involved, it was unlikely to be the sole cause.
Climate Change Context
The Himalayas are warming twice as fast as the global average, and the United Nations said in 2023 that Nepal’s mountains had lost close to one-third of their ice in just over 30 years. The rate of ice loss from glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya has doubled since 2000, according to ICIMOD. Mountain permafrost, which acts as a glue holding rock and glaciers together on steep slopes, is degrading under the warming climate.
This is not the first such disaster in the region. In 2021, a Himalayan glacier broke off and caused flash flooding in Uttarakhand, India, leaving 200 people dead or missing. The Lhende Khola river system has now flooded twice in just 14 months, with a similar sudden flood striking the Bhotekoshi river on July 8, 2025.
Rescue and International Response
Nepal has mobilized at least 2,000 military personnel for search and rescue operations, with more than 5,000 army and police rescue personnel joining the effort. Twelve helicopters have been deployed, though weather conditions have repeatedly hampered operations. Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah visited the worst-affected areas, and the government declared affected districts as disaster areas for three months.
International aid has been swift. India sent C130 aircraft with 10 tons of humanitarian aid, and PM Modi spoke with PM Shah. China’s President Xi Jinping ordered all-out rescue efforts, activating a Level-II emergency response and allocating 220 million yuan ($33 million). The European Union activated its Copernicus satellite monitoring system, the United States provided $500,000 in emergency aid, and the United Nations confirmed teams delivering support. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies released slightly more than 1 million euros in emergency funds.
What’s Next
Search and rescue operations continue, though experts warn that the death toll could rise significantly as more bodies are recovered. Chinese authorities have also warned that a still-dammed lake in Gyirong poses further risks and could severely complicate rescue efforts.
For Nepal, the disaster represents one of the worst since the 2015 earthquakes. The economic impact is expected to be substantial, with 19 bridges and 40 kilometers of roads damaged, six major hydropower facilities affected, and the Rasuwagadhi customs office destroyed. As journalist Ramyata Limbu noted, the affected area was home to tourism, trade, and hydropower projects that sustained local livelihoods.
The disaster has also revived concerns about the lack of a formal cross-border mechanism for sharing real-time information between Nepal and China on glacial lake risks. As scientists continue to analyze satellite imagery and reconstruct the sequence of events, the question of whether this catastrophe could have been predicted - or prevented - will likely shape discussions about Himalayan disaster preparedness for years to come.