KATHMANDU: The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Nepal has risen to at least 675, with more than 2,400 people still missing, the country’s disaster management authority said on Saturday.
The disaster, which struck areas near the border with China earlier this week, has caused widespread destruction and prompted ongoing rescue and recovery operations.
Chinese state media reported seven deaths in Tibet following the disaster, bringing the combined death toll in Nepal and Tibet to 682.
According to Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, 2,426 people remain missing. The list includes 517 foreign nationals and 933 workers employed at hydropower projects along the river affected by the floods.
Those people must have lived and died so many times looking down their balcony at the raging flood while praying that the roof over their heads and the ground beneath their feet would hold.
And somehow, it did.
There are moments in a catastrophe that are hard to explain. The… pic.twitter.com/ZnX3Q0KiJ7
— Abhishek Jha (@abhishekjha157) August 28, 2026
The missing also include 45 Nepali Army personnel, 40 police officers, and 19 immigration and customs officials, highlighting the scale of the disaster and its impact on communities and emergency services.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities have recovered seven bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal. The victims are believed to have been swept away by the floods, although the deaths have not yet been added to Nepal’s official toll.
Rescue teams continue to search for missing people as authorities assess the full extent of the damage caused by the floods and landslides.
Nepal may need $5 billion for reconstruction
Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has said that Nepal may require between $4 billion and $5 billion to rebuild after devastating floods and landslides this week, with the estimated cost amounting to nearly one-tenth of the country’s economy.
Wagle said the figure was only an initial estimate, as authorities continue to assess the extent of the damage and losses caused by the disaster.
“The initial estimate is between $4-$5 billion. Just an estimate,” Wagle said, adding that the reconstruction costs would likely be lower than those following Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquake.
Enormous Trauma
The Red Cross said the trauma from Wednesday’s catastrophe had been “enormous”, with as many as 93,000 people potentially affected. The death toll is expected to rise.
Emergency teams have been working to reach survivors in devastated areas, where food and water supplies were running short.
Hundreds Killed, More Than 1,000 Missing after Flood Hits Nepal and China
The search has also been complicated by fears of further flooding.
2,000 people now missing in Nepal as death toll from floods hits 579.
Nepali authorities say they’re monitoring two lakes upstream from the main flood zone, one of which has begun overflowing. pic.twitter.com/4cyByjJ1Yx— 𓂀 𝕋𝔼𝔸ℍ 𓂀 (@TeahCartel) August 28, 2026
The deluge of ice, mud and debris created huge lakes, with one threatening rescue teams operating in the affected region.
Nepali police urged rescuers to “immediately move to a safe location” after receiving information that “a water dam has burst again on the Chinese side”.
Chinese authorities temporarily suspended rescue operations in the worst-hit area of Gyirong over concerns about renewed flooding before later saying the threat had eased.
State news agency Xinhua reported early Saturday that two villagers had been rescued in the area.
Hundreds trapped at hydropower project
On the Nepali side, the military located people trapped inside a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project and was working to reach them.
“Two helicopters have been dispatched, but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,” army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.
About 350 workers and residents had been brought to safety from the site, he said, while efforts continued to rescue more than 100 people believed to be trapped in the same area.
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Workers rescued from other hydropower projects along the Trishuli valley described how quickly the disaster unfolded.
Buddha Tamang said he survived because he was inside a tunnel at the dam where he worked when the flood struck.
“The senior officers working on the other side, they were all swept away,” Tamang told AFP after being airlifted to safety on Thursday following more than 24 hours stranded at the site.
Pilgrims among missing
Scores of Hindu devotees from around the world were among those reported missing, with many travelling towards Mount Kailash on pilgrimage.
Sivaranjani Muthunathan was travelling by bus with 56 others towards the Chinese border when they initially believed they had encountered a traffic jam.
“Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us,” the 46-year-old told AFP on Friday, showing a video she recorded of the torrent surging towards the bus.
Vehicles around them were swept away or buried under mud.
“One by one, we also climbed out through the driver’s side,” she said, before scrambling up a hill.
