Nepal’s death toll from flash floods and landslides has risen to 675, with 2,498 people still missing, as the wider disaster in Nepal and China’s Tibet region has claimed 691 lives.
Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 people remain unaccounted for in Tibet, bringing the combined number of missing across the two regions to more than 3,000.
The scale of the disaster has also complicated efforts to identify those who died. The Kathmandu Post reported that only 20 of the 669 bodies recovered in Nepal had been identified by relatives as of Saturday evening.
Authorities are working to preserve identification evidence and find additional space for the remains as hospital mortuaries reach capacity. Some of the recovered bodies have also begun to decompose, further complicating the identification process.
Meanwhile, the Nepal Tourism Board said 261 foreign nationals had been rescued, while 320 remained unaccounted for.
International assistance is also being mobilised, with the United States announcing more than US$3.6 million in humanitarian aid for flood-hit Nepal on Saturday. The assistance includes emergency food aid for up to 10,000 affected households.
