At least 157 people have been killed in Nepal and hundreds remain missing, including dozens of Australians and more than 100 Indian nationals, after a catastrophic flash flood tore through communities along the Nepal-Tibet border.
The disaster struck on Wednesday morning along the Bhotekoshi river system, sending a wall of water, mud, rocks and debris through Rasuwa and neighbouring districts, destroying homes, vehicles, bridges, roads, hydropower facilities and businesses.
Nepal Police said at least 157 bodies had been recovered on the Nepalese side by Thursday morning. Across the border, Chinese authorities reported another three deaths in Tibet’s Gyirong County, bringing the confirmed toll across the wider disaster zone to at least 160.
The number of people missing has changed repeatedly as authorities reconcile information from security agencies, tourism operators, pilgrimage organisers and families.
Nepal Tourism Board spokesperson Sunil Sharma said 403 people were reported missing, including 341 foreign nationals. The list included 133 people from India, 34 Australians, 47 Americans, 33 British nationals and 24 Canadians.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed on Thursday that 34 Australians were among those unaccounted for.
“At this point Nepal is a developing country, it doesn’t have the resources that an event like that would have in Australia, so information is difficult,” Albanese said.
“Our thoughts are with all those who will be concerned about their loved ones today.”
Australian officials are working with Nepalese authorities and travel companies to establish the whereabouts of those believed to have been in the affected region.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, writing on X, described the scale of the destruction as devastating.
“The loss of life and destruction caused by flash flooding in Nepal and China is devastating,” Wong said.
“Our thoughts are with the loved ones of those killed or missing and all affected by this disaster.”
She said Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials were “urgently working to confirm the welfare of Australians in the area”.
DFAT has urged Australians in affected areas to follow instructions from local authorities and said it was liaising with tour operators as well as Nepalese officials.
“We stand ready to provide consular assistance,” a department spokesperson said.
As of Thursday morning, no Australian deaths had been publicly confirmed by nationality among the 157 bodies recovered in Nepal.
The disaster has also prompted an urgent response from India, with 133 Indian nationals listed among the missing by Nepal Tourism Board officials.
Earlier Indian reports had cited 105 Indian citizens and 37 non-resident Indians as missing, illustrating how rapidly the numbers have changed as authorities update their lists.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah and used X to promise support.
“Spoke to Prime Minister Balendra Shah and conveyed condolences on the loss of lives due to the floods in Nepal,” Modi wrote.
“The people of India stand in solidarity with their sisters and brothers in Nepal at this difficult time.”
He added: “India is ready to provide all possible humanitarian assistance to Nepal. Our teams are coordinating closely on rescue and relief efforts.”
India has already begun sending emergency assistance.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said an Indian Air Force C-130J aircraft was carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief material, including temporary shelters, blankets, hygiene kits, solar lamps and medicines.
Jaishankar subsequently said India’s humanitarian and medical assistance had reached Kathmandu and more aid was being mobilised.
The uncertainty surrounding foreign tourists has been heightened by the disappearance of an entire Isha Sacred Walks Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage group.
Maa Gambhiri, coordinator at Isha Sacred Walks, told ANI that 77 pilgrims were unreachable, including 53 people of Indian origin.
More than 50 members of the group were women, she said, and the travellers came from 19 countries, including Australia, the United States, Canada, Britain, European nations and Asian countries.
“There were people from 19 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, the UK, and Asian countries,” Gambhiri said.
“This was our group of foreign nationals… 53 people of Indian origin were in this group.”
The distinction between Indian nationals and people of Indian origin is important.
Isha Foundation representatives have said the 77 travellers were foreign nationals, with none travelling as Indian citizens. That means the 53 people described as Indian-origin may hold Australian, American, British, Canadian or other passports and should not automatically be added to the figure of 133 Indian nationals reported missing by Nepalese authorities.
It is also possible that an Indian-origin Australian within the Isha group could already be included within the wider figure of 34 missing Australians.
As of Thursday morning, no death among the Isha group had been officially confirmed, and there were no publicly verified reports confirming an Indian-origin or Indian-national fatality among Nepal’s 157 recovered bodies.
The group had completed the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and was travelling back towards Kathmandu when communications were lost.
Gambhiri said the pilgrims had reached an immigration centre after clearing the Tibetan side of their journey.
The group leader, identified as Praveen, spoke to an Isha team member at about 9.05am.
Ten minutes later, repeated calls went unanswered.
“One of our team members spoke to him at 9:05 am. However, when we tried to contact him again ten minutes later, we couldn’t get through to him or anyone else,” Gambhiri said.
“It seems the incident occurred within those ten minutes.”
She said there had been no warning when the group was last contacted.
“We had no prior information or inkling that anything was amiss; everything seemed completely normal during our conversation, and this happened quite suddenly,” she said.
“There was no warning, no indication.”
Communication networks throughout parts of the border region were destroyed, leaving organisers unable to directly establish whether the pilgrims had survived or moved to safer ground.
“We haven’t been able to establish contact yet because there was a massive flood,” Gambhiri said.
“All communication lines are down, and we cannot reach anyone on the ground.”
She described the scale of Wednesday’s event as unlike anything the pilgrimage organisers had previously encountered.
“We have certainly seen minor incidents, small things like a minor landslide that would get cleared up within 12 to 24 hours,” she said.
“But what we witnessed today is something we have never seen before. It is beyond imagination what happened today.”
Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, who was also in the region with other pilgrimage groups, said on X that one of the organisation’s Kailash groups had been caught in the disaster.
He said the travellers had been at the immigration office when the flood struck and that “the building and much of the town seems to have been flooded”.
“There has been no official information on the whereabouts of any of the people who were at the immigration office,” he said.
The foundation said it had organised 21 groups for the pilgrimage season. It reported that 495 pilgrims had already returned safely, while hundreds more remained elsewhere in Tibet and Nepal.
Authorities believe the devastating surge may have been triggered by an ice avalanche followed by the formation and sudden collapse of a temporary debris lake upstream.
Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology said preliminary satellite imagery suggested debris blocked the river about 20 kilometres upstream of the Miteri Bridge, causing water to accumulate before the natural barrier failed.
Researchers have also focused on the Lhende river, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi.
A preliminary scientific assessment suggests an ice avalanche fell into and blocked the Lhende, allowing water to build behind the debris before bursting downstream.
Reports that an earthquake may have triggered the sequence remain under investigation, and authorities have not established a definitive cause.
What is clear is that the flood struck with extraordinary speed.
The Bhotekoshi surged through Timure, Rasuwagadhi and Syaphrubesi, before continuing through downstream settlements.
Automatic monitoring stations in the upper reaches of the river were themselves swept away, complicating efforts to understand how quickly the water rose.
The infrastructure damage is extensive.
A preliminary assessment reported by The Kathmandu Post found nine hydropower projects and nine commercial bank branches were destroyed, while 19 motorable bridges and about 40 kilometres of highway were swept away.
Separate road department assessments found a roughly 42-kilometre road corridor between Betrawati and the Rasuwagadhi border crossing had been badly damaged or washed away.
The border corridor is particularly busy at this time of year because it is used by pilgrims travelling to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, sacred destinations for Hindus and followers of several other religious traditions.
The nearby Langtang region is also popular with international trekkers, while Nepalese pilgrims travel through the area during the Janai Purnima period.
That concentration of travellers helps explain the unusually high number of foreign nationals caught in the disaster.
Nepal’s army, police and Armed Police Force have deployed rescue teams, while helicopters have attempted to reach areas isolated by destroyed roads, deep mud and damaged communications.
China has mounted a parallel rescue operation across the Tibetan side of the border, where three people have been confirmed dead and 265 remain missing in Gyirong County.
India, China, UN agencies and international humanitarian organisations have offered or begun delivering assistance.
Australian Ambassador to Nepal Simon Ernst joined the embassies of Britain, France, Finland, Norway and Switzerland in expressing solidarity with those affected.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected by this disaster,” the joint statement said.
“We express our solidarity with the people of Nepal during this difficult time.”
For families in Australia and across the Indian diaspora, attention is now focused on the painstaking effort to identify survivors and reconcile conflicting lists of missing travellers.
The latest publicly available figures show 34 Australians missing, 133 Indian nationals missing, and a separate Isha group of 77 foreign nationals — including 53 people of Indian origin and travellers from Australia — unreachable.
Those numbers should not be combined because there may be considerable overlap between nationality-based government lists and Isha’s description of pilgrims by heritage.
Most importantly, as of Thursday morning there were no publicly confirmed Australian, Indian-national or Indian-origin deaths among those whose nationality had been established.
With hundreds still unaccounted for and rescue crews struggling to enter some of the worst-hit areas, however, authorities have warned that the death toll from one of Nepal’s most destructive disasters in years could rise further.
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