Nothing but ruins: Chinese rescue team find Nepal border station was swept off face of the Earth by flood as incredible satellite images show scale of devastation with 2,426 still missing

Satellite images show how the deadly Nepal floods have swept border stations, bridges and buildings off the face of the Earth, as a Chinese rescue team reached an obliterated border station for the first time which is now 'nothing but ruins'.

Pictures taken since the tsunami from the sky – thought to have been triggered by a glacial collapse – swept through remote areas of the country and neighbouring Tibet depict entire settlements simply disappearing.

Rasuwagadhi border crossing, located at one end of Friendship Bridge on the border between Nepal and Tibet, was finally reached by a team of rescuers on Friday and was found to have been annihilated.

The disaster is known to have killed at least 626 people, with the death toll expected to rise as 2,426 people remain missing, authorities said on Saturday.

This includes more than 500 foreign tourists, 33 of whom are known to be British. Many foreign nationals are feared to have been in the vicinity of Rasuwagadhi, taking holy pilgrimages or embarking on trekking expeditions.

Rescue efforts are continuing today but the risk of further flooding, combined with poor weather, the remote mountainous terrain and the sheer scale of the mission, is making conditions challenging.

Last night, fresh satellite images brought home the scale of the damage, showing entire settlements have completely vanished, washed away by the raging torrent of mud and water which descended along the Trishuli River on Wednesday. 

The Gyirong region crossing, a crucial landmark for pilgrims seeking access to the Langtang valley and tourists out trekking, saw some of the first, and most distressing, footage of the flood to be captured.

Rasuwagadhi border crossing, located at one end of Friendship Bridge on the border between Nepal and Tibet, is pictured in April 2024

In images taken this week, the buildings and bridge have been utterly destroyed, with rescuers on the ground saying there is 'nothing but ruins' to be seen there

CCTV footage shows people running away as wall of mud and water destroys buildings at Rasuwagadhi border crossing, August 26, 2026

The village of Syapru Besi (pictured before the floods) also saw widespread devastation, with many of the buildings at ground level destroyed

The wide bed of mud and silt shows how far outside of the Trishuli River's banks the deluge fell

A bridge, which appears to be located to the south of Syapru Besi, pictured before the floods

In later images, the bride and buildings next to it have completely disappeared

CCTV footage saw people fleeing before the water and mud completely engulfed the large building.

The crossing has now gone, along with its large rear car park, Friendship Bridge and all associated buildings – just the river and surrounding greenery remain, as if it was never there.

A Chinese rescue team was the first to reach the obliterated landscape at the crossing yesterday, and said they found 'nothing but ruins'. 

State media reported that the Chinese team of 21 rescuers and a search-and-rescue dog arrived at Rasuwagadhi yesterday.

'There was no road … it was all virgin forest and sheer cliffs,' rescue worker Zou Mingqi said. At the complex, 'as far as the eye could ⁠see, there was nothing but ruins.' 

The team had to use ropes to cross forests and valleys to reach the area, thought to be among the worst affected.

The crossing is one site where many of the missing tourists are feared to have been. British care agency boss Leena Bector, 53, from Slough, Berkshire, was last heard from just an hour away from the site.

Other images show bridges crossing the Trishuli river wiped out, along with the small settlements and industries on either side.

Some depict the village of Syapru Besi, with prior photos suggesting a vibrant, sprawling community nestled around a fork in the river.

Images taken after the flood had rampaged through the area show much of the village washed away.

Just a fraction of the houses were spared, mostly those nestled further away from the river along a narrow road rising into the mountains.

A bed of mud and silt can be seen left behind, showing how far beyond its usual banks the torrent flowed. 

A bridge, which appears to be located just to the south of the village, has also completely been destroyed. 

And construction sites, camping areas and footbridges have all similarly been affected. Some of those set back from the river have survived, but the landscape around them has not, with huge areas of trees and forest disappearing compared to images taken previously.

Aerial footage of what appear to be industrial buildings lining both sides of the river before the flood, connected by a bridge

The same area after the disaster shows all of it wiped away - some 626 people are known to have been killed

The torrent tossed busses and cars into the air and smashed through a car park barrier as it tore through the site in apocalyptic scenes

One video shows the moment the Bhote Koshi river swells up and overflows, as the current knocks down the homes surrounding it

Scores of men in orange hi-vis jackets and hard hats fled in terror as they watched the mass of water rush at them

Army personnel carry rescued children in the aftermath of flash floods at Trishuli camp in Nepal's Nuwakot district on Saturday

Nepalese Army personnel rescue a survivor from a hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa district on Friday

A man takes pictures in front of damaged buildings after flash floods and a mudslide, in Trishuli

The destruction indicates just how tough a reality is faced by first responders on the ground after the 'tsunami from the sky'. 

Some 626 people are now known to have been killed in the disaster, with some 2,426 still missing, including around 540 foreign tourists, Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said.

The latest figures from Chinese state media reported seven people were dead and 554 people were missing in Tibet. 

Around 93,000 people have been affected in Nepal, the Red Cross said on Friday, many of whom are now homeless after their houses, or whole communities, were swept away.

The cost of recovering from the flood could equate to $5billion, around a tenth of the nation's economy, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has said. 

Grimly, authorities said yesterday that the scale of the bodies being recovered is making storage a challenge.

The District Administration Office in the Nepalese district of Chitwan said it had only been able to identify four of the 233 bodies recovered. It said DNA samples were being taken from the bodies which were 'in a state of decomposition and no longer identifiable'. 

Authorities are calling for more expert and technical help to assist aid teams accessing the worst-affected areas, but said they had enough rescuers for the task.

They have asked for assistance to reopen transport networks, replace bridges, test bodies for DNA and store them properly.

At least 33 Brits are still missing, many of whom were in Nepal visiting family or on pilgrimages. 

Many travel via Nepal to get to Tibet's Mount Kailash, which holds sacred significance for Jains, Buddhists and Hindus. The mountain has a peak of 21,778ft.

Among the missing are beauty pageant winner Surabhi Sahu, 44, her businessman husband Santosh, 46, their son Spandan, 18, and daughter Syna, 13, who were on an adventure trek across the Nepal-China border.

Mr and Mrs Sahu ran a successful technology company in London together before he set up a thriving pharmaceutical business. The family live in a £1.3million six-bedroom house in Cobham, Surrey.

They travelled to India last week and then on to the Nepalese-Tibetan trek. They were due to return in ten days before the start of the new school year.

A 14-year-old British boy is also missing, as well as multiple UK citizens who were making a pilgrimage to the sacred Hindu site of Mount Kailash.

Members of the Tibet Fire and Rescue Team conduct search and rescue operations along the Gyirong Zangbo River on Saturday

Rescuers carry out search and rescue operations at the mudslide-hit area in Gyirong County on Saturday

Members of the Nepal army carry a woman after she was rescued and airlifted from flood-affected areas at Maithali Barrack, an army training centre that serves as a primary base for airlifting survivors on Saturday

Armed Police Force officials stand with sniffer dogs at the disaster site of flash floods and mudslides, in Devighat, Nuwakot district, Nepal on Saturday

A damaged house stands following the flash floods and mudslide, at Devighat, Nuwakot district, Nepal

A millionaire family-of-four from Surrey including a former Mrs India UK are also among Britons missing in Nepal

A now poignant photo of an Alpine Eco Tours tour group cheerfully posing in front of their bus. The group included a girl of 13

Leena Bector, 53, from Slough, Berkshire, has also not been heard of after travelling to the region to see the Himalayas

Sarada Simkhada, a senior nurse at the Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, left for Nepal last Saturday for a pilgrimage 

One tour alone nine British nationals remain unaccounted for – four males, aged 14, 50, 50 and 54, and five women, aged 40, 46, 50, 50 and 53.

Travel logs show three men aged 65, 64 and 52, and seven women aged 44, 47, 51, 60, 63, 63 and 65, are also among the missing British nationals.

Tour operator Kailash Journeys said it had not been able to account for seven UK nationals: five women and two men aged between 18 and 55; travelling with the company.

Among the missing is the wife of 54-year-old Pravin Atmakur, who was leading a group of 77 pilgrims to Mount Kailash in Tibet when the floods struck.

Manjula Atmakur arrived in Kathmandu on Friday morning after travelling from Britain to search for her husband, who has not been heard from since the disaster.

The couple both work as consultant psychiatrists for the NHS, while their son studies at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Nepalese authorities have declared them missing, and their worried family said they have received no contact from the UK Foreign Office. 

Nelly Chhetri, 18, and her mother Yashika Basnet, 56, had joined a tour group and have not been heard from since.

Nelly, an 'ambitious' former pupil of the Invicta Grammar School for girls, in Maidstone, Kent, hopes to go to university next year, her cousin Nickie Chhetri told the Daily Mail.

She has just completed a sixth-form course in health and social care at Uxbridge College, in London.

Roshan Panday, owner of Fishtail Tours and Travels Group, had a tour group of 27 including Briton Leena Bector, and he said 'no one is answering their phones'.

He said they had sent a video just nine minutes before the disaster struck, adding: 'Absolutely everything's under the mud. We tried calling the drivers. We tried calling the guides. We tried calling them all, but no one was answering.'

Ms Bector's husband, Bhupesh Bector, told The Times he was frantically checking his iPhone to check her location but it had not changed for more than seven hours. 

He flew out last night, saying: 'I know that she's in Nepal for sure, so even if they find her today or tomorrow, I need to be there.' 

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: 'British nationals in Nepal should follow local authority advice and exercise caution while travelling.'

Prime Minister Andy Burnham this week pledged £5million to go to support Nepal amid the crisis. 

As the rescue operation entered its fourth day, Nepal Army spokesman Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet said helicopter operations had been suspended on Saturday until weather conditions improved. 

Army rescue teams were using drilling equipment on Saturday seeking to rescue more than 100 people trapped inside a hydropower tunnel, three days after devastating floods struck the site.

'The government has been continuing efforts... to rescue people trapped inside the tunnel of the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project in Rasuwa,' Nepal's prime minister's office said in a statement.

'As part of these efforts, work to clear the tunnel entrance has been intensified since early Saturday morning,' it added.

Photographs shared by the office showed workers wading through churned mud and navigating vast boulders left by the floods.

It said that 82 personnel, including both army and police, were working to 'excavate the tunnel entrance'.

But it added that the rescue effort has become 'extremely challenging' due to adverse weather conditions.

On Thursday, the office said that the army had already rescued 350 people from the site under 'extremely risky' conditions, but that more than 100 remained trapped.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said: 'The scenes from Nepal are devastating, and our thoughts remain with everyone affected.

'The safety and welfare of British nationals is our top priority. That is why we are deploying a Rapid Deployment Team to Nepal to provide additional support on the ground for British nationals and their families at what is an incredibly difficult time.

'Our staff are working closely with the Nepali authorities, emergency responders and our embassy in Kathmandu to ensure those affected can access the assistance and information they need.

'We will continue to do everything we can to support British nationals impacted by this tragedy.'