Rescuers retrieve flood survivors caked in mud as death toll in Nepal-China border disaster climbs

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescuers pulled out survivors caked in dark brown mud and helicopters lifted stranded people to safety, as Nepal and China raced to respond to catastrophic flash floods that killed nearly 600 people and left almost 2,500 missing, with both counts expected to rise.

The rescue efforts included a team that rappelled into a severely damaged checkpoint area on the Chinese side of the border between the two countries. Rescuers were on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that formed high up in the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods Wednesday. Experts warned that the lake, created after a glacier collapse that triggered the floods, was starting to overflow.

Nepal’s army was deployed to help rescue more than 100 people believed trapped inside a tunnel at a hydropower plant located in the country’s worst-hit district. Like elsewhere in the disaster zone, their work was complicated by thick layers of mud that covered the site.

The rappelling rescue team descended into the once-bustling border-crossing area from wooded mountain slopes, the state broadcaster China Central Television said.

“As far as I can see, it’s nothing but debris,” rescue official Zou Mingqi told state media. The area where travelers went through border control to enter or leave China has been flattened to a muddy area, according to satellite images.

The floods have killed 579 in Nepal, the country’s disaster-management authority said Friday. Nepali police later put the number of deaths at 553. There was little information on survivors on the Chinese side, where the death toll rose to seven Friday as state media showed evacuations of villages and leaders’ efforts to direct the relief response.

More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far. Meanwhile, the number of people who were unaccounted for in the country nearly doubled to 1,924 as more local residents were added to the tally. China’s state media said 554 people were missing on the Chinese side.

Hundreds of the missing are foreigners in the area to work, trek or make a pilgrimage to a sacred peak.