Number of missing in Nepal floods passes 2,400 as UNICEF says 17,000 children need aid

The number of people missing in Nepal and China surpassed 2,400 on Friday, underscoring the scale of the disaster days after a tsunami-like wall of water and debris swept away villages and killed hundreds.

Rescuers were battling through mud even as the threat of new floods loomed, with emergency teams recovering 586 bodies so far and some of the dead swept downstream as far away as India.

The new figures came as Nepal's disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to a missing persons list already including trekkers and pilgrims to Tibet's sacred Mount Kailash.

Relatives have crowded hospitals in Nepal's capital in a painful hunt for their loved ones, with posters on the walls bearing photos and names of the missing.

"Today is the third day and we don't know anything. Hopefully he is in a safe place," Samjhana Thing, 27, told the AFP news agency referring to her brother. "We lost everything. He is our everything."

The US Geological Survey said the disaster, the deadliest for Nepal since a 2015 earthquake, was caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a vast flow of icy debris.

The deluge of ice and mud also caused huge lakes to form and one of these formations has become a direct threat to emergency workers scouring the region for survivors.

Nepali police urged all rescuers to "immediately move to a safe location", saying it had received information that "a water dam has burst again on the Tibetan side."

In Tibet, China was forced to suspend its rescue operation at the hardest-hit area of Gyirong over the risk of renewed flooding on Friday, before saying the threat had eased.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that a lake formed by immense piles of debris began overflowing toward where rescue teams were headed, but later said the water level of the pool had dropped.

Rescue operations were therefore "proceeding in an orderly manner", it added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who chaired a meeting on rescue efforts, offered Beijing's help to Nepal's emergency operations.

Swept away

Emergency teams had been racing to retrieve survivors from affected zones, where the widespread devastation meant food and water supplies were running out.

The Nepali military located people trapped in the tunnel of Trishuli 3A hydropower project, where they were working to find a way in to extract the survivors.

"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.

Some 350 workers and residents have been brought to safety from the site, he added, but efforts were ongoing to rescue more than 100 people trapped in the same area.

Workers rescued from other dam projects along the Trishuli valley described a disaster that unfolded with terrifying speed.

Buddha Tamang told AFP he survived only 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, who was airlifted on Thursday after being marooned for more than 24 hours, said.

Aid trickles in

Aid began to reach some survivors in Nepal on Friday, as the full scope of the devastation continued to emerge and survivors sought shelter at makeshift army relief centres.

Children who have been separated from their families are being given shelter as attempts are made to reunite them with families.

The UN's agency for children UNICEF said at least 17,000 children are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, while 18 schools have been destroyed and another 20 damaged.

The International Red Cross estimates that at least 93,000 people have been affected and are in “great need.”

Also on Friday, the European Union promised €2 million in aid for Nepal with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen writing on X that the "immediate humanitarian aid" would help "deliver life-saving assistance to families and communities hit hardest."