Nepal-Tibet disaster: death toll exceeds 800 amid warnings of new flash floods

The death toll in Nepal has risen to 788, taking the overall toll to 804. Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 dead in Tibet and 546 people missing following Wednesday’s disaster.

There are 3,048 people unaccounted for.

Nepal’s Chitwan district has become the site of mass burials for hundreds of unidentified victims whose bodies were swept away by the devastating flash floods. Authorities have dug ⁠hundreds of graves in the district’s Devghat forest, which is serving as a temporary burial ground for bodies too badly decomposed to be identified.

Morgues across Nepal are already overflowing. Authorities have been overwhelmed trying to identify the dead, with many bodies beyond recognition and turning up miles downstream.

About 85 Americans remain missing, the state department said on Sunday. State department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told ABC News that nine Americans have been evacuated and that he was unaware of any US nationals dying in the disaster.

China said 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries were missing on the Tibetan side of a ⁠border crossing with Nepal: the ⁠highest number was from Nepal at 104, while 49 Indian, 33 Latvian, 18 American and 15 British citizens were also unaccounted for.

Senator Penny Wong, Australian minister for foreign affairs, said Australia is deploying a further $3m in humanitarian assistance to flood-afflicted areas along the Nepal-China border. Wong highlighted that 42 Australians remain unaccounted for.

Authorities have issued high-alert fresh water surge and flash flood warnings for the Trishuli Bazaar area in Nepal’s Nuwakot district following severe upstream glacial collapses and debris flows.

In a breakthrough late on Saturday, the Nepali army was able to insert a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where more than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside such tunnels, with rescue efforts still ongoing.