A Chinese rescue team has reached the all-but-obliterated Gyirong border crossing complex for the first time and found “nothing but ruins” as Nepal and China continue their arduous rescue operations in the flood-hit Himalayas.
Surveillance camera footage from the worst-hit Gyirong border crossing complex showed huge torrents of water and debris on Wednesday engulfing buildings and people trying to flee. Only on Friday were rescuers able to reach the area.
State media reported that the Chinese team of ۲۱ rescuers and a search-and-rescue dog crossed mountains and valleys and used ropes to navigate forests and cliffs after roads to the complex, hemmed in by steep Himalayan slopes, were destroyed.
Zou Mingqi, a rescue worker, said: “There was no road … it was all virgin forest and sheer cliffs.” At the complex, “as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but ruins”.
The glacier collapse that unleashed a deadly torrent through Himalayan mountain river systems has killed at least ۶۲۶ people in Nepal and seven in China’s Tibet. The number of people missing was revised up to nearly ۳,۰۰۰ on Saturday: ۲,۴۲۶ in Nepal and ۵۵۴ in Tibet.
Amid the deepening crisis, Nepal has now said it needs foreign help in specialised and technical areas in which it does not have expertise, but not in search and rescue.
On Friday, Nepal’s foreign ministry had said that Kathmandu could manage the rescue efforts on its own for now and declined foreign involvement.
The areas in which Nepal is seeking help include opening transport and communication services in places where bridges have been destroyed, identification of dead bodies, DNA testing, rescuing people stuck in tunnels, and storing bodies for longer durations, the foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, said late on Friday.
Khanal said there was no need for assistance in general search and rescue which was being done by Nepali rescuers. “We think there is no need for repetition in this,” he said.
Nepal has requested that its neighbours, India and China, provide bailey bridges to reopen transport and communication in an area where about two dozen bridges have been destroyed.
So far, India has sent three flights carrying about ۶۰ tons of relief material to Nepal, including blankets, medicines, food and water purification tablets, and a specialised tunnel rescue team.
Rescuers – including army personnel and police – have been clawing through mud and using drilling equipment to reach more than ۱۰۰ people trapped inside a hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa. More than ۳۵۰ people have already been evacuated from the site under “extremely risky” conditions and the office of Nepal’s prime minister said the rescue effort had become “extremely challenging” due to adverse weather.
China has called for emergency aid to disaster-hit areas and international rescue cooperation, without elaborating on what China is sending to Nepal.
Nepal is continuing to monitor two barrier lakes upstream of the flood zone, with an official warning that flood risks will persist until both lakes fully drain.
Satellite imagery showed the second lake growing larger with no visible outlet, raising concerns that water pressure could still be building.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said that the first barrier lake was reducing in size, citing analysis by the water resources ministry. A Chinese government geo-hazards expert warned, however, that the lake may be unstable and that more than ۱۰۰ glacial lakes scattered throughout the area could pose a threat.
In Beijing, a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping called for stronger monitoring of glacier lakes and landslide risks, and for closer international disaster cooperation, Xinhua reported.
China’s Premier Li Qiang, the country’s No ۲ official, arrived in the area of Gyirong on Thursday afternoon, Xinhua said. The visit suggested Beijing was treating the disaster as a matter of the highest national priority.
In China, strict controls on the flow of information from one of its most sensitive regions are hampering the public’s understanding of events.
The BBC and New York Times have reported that videos of the catastrophic floods, widely shared globally, have not appeared on Chinese social media sites.
Chinese state media has carried several broadcasts about the floods and dispatched journalists to the area, but reports have focused on the rescue efforts rather than the scale of the devastation. In one broadcast from a relief centre in Tibet, the journalist did not speak to any of the people sitting behind him.
Tibet, brought under Chinese control in the ۱۹۵۰s, is the most sensitive and tightly controlled region in the country.
The Gyirong border port plays a key role in China’s belt and road network linking the country to south Asia, with logistics zones and vehicle parks built there in the past decade.
Nepal’s finance minister, Swarnim Waglé, estimated the country will need $۴-$۵bn (£۳-£۳.۷bn) for rebuilding. “This is just an estimate. Loss and damage is being assessed,” he said.
More than ۹۰,۰۰۰ people have been affected by the disaster, the Red Cross estimated.
