A series of flash floods struck the Bhote Koshi River in Rasuwa district, northern Nepal, on the morning of 26August 2026, entering from the Tibet Autonomous Region of China at around 09:00 Nepal Standard Time (NPT)and surging downstream through the Trishuli River system into Nuwakot, Dhading and beyond. The border settlements of Timure and Syabrubesi, the Rasuwagadhi customs and border crossing, and roughly a dozen riverside settlements in northern Rasuwa took the earliest and heaviest impact, before the surge moved through Betrawati and Trishuli Bazar in Nuwakot, Galchhi and Dhunge Bazaar inDhading, and onward past Muglin into the Narayani river system, where deaths were subsequently recorded asfar away as Chitwan, Gorkha, Tanahu and Nawalparasi East.
Casualty figures rose sharply and repeatedly through the day as search teams reached previously cut-off areas,and this report treats every figure below as provisional. By the morning of Thursday 27 August, the NDRRMAand Nepal Police put the confirmed death toll at 165, with 73 people injured, up from the roughly 160 (157 bodiesrecovered) reported late on Wednesday, and superseding Wednesday-evening figures of 95 from the PrimeMinister’s Office (PMO) and 72 from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA). Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for. As of a NepalPolice bulletin issued around 08:15 on Thursday 27 August, 826 people were listed as missing in Nepal alone:579 travellers (466 foreign nationals and 113 Nepalis), 85 security personnel (44 Nepali Army, 28 Nepal Policeand 13 Armed Police Force), 161 residents of Rasuwa and one of Nuwakot. Most of the missing foreign travellerswere moving toward the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage route through Tibet, and included at least 133 Indian pilgrims alongside citizens of Malaysia (55), the United States (47), Australia (34), the United Kingdom (33),Canada (24) and other countries. A further 85 security personnel (Nepali Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force), 60 hydropower-project workers, 26 bank employees and 15 customs officers were separately reported missing or out of contact A further 60 hydropower-project workers, 26 bank employees and 15 customs officers were separately reported out of contact. On the Chinese side of the border, state media (CCTV) reported 3 confirmed deaths and 558 people missing, 260 of them foreign nationals, around the Gyirong Port trade hub in Xizang (Tibet), bringing the combined Nepal-and-Tibet missing total to more than 1,300, though the two countries’ counts of foreign nationals may overlap.
The flood caused severe damage to infrastructure across a roughly 60-kilometer valley corridor. TheDepartment of Roads confirmed that the entire 42-kilometer road linking Betrawati (Nuwakot) to the Rasuwagadhi border crossing had been destroyed at multiple points, including several concrete bridges, cutting Nepal’s principal overland trade and pilgrimage route to Tibet; a further 16-kilometer stretch toward the border,recently upgraded with Chinese government financing, was also swept away. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) reported damage to 14 hydropower projects with a combined capacity ofapproximately 748 MW (9 operational plants (354 MW) and 5 under construction (394 MW)) including the Rasuwagadhi, Chilime, Sanjen Khola, Upper Trishuli-1, Trishuli and Devighat plants and a 220 kV substation; the Ministry of Energy’s earlier same-day estimate had put the loss at 431 MW, illustrating how fast the damage assessment was still moving. Nine commercial bank branches were swept away, with 26 staff unaccounted for, and the Rasuwa customs office in Timure lost contact with 15employees.
The trigger has not been officially confirmed. Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and independent glaciologists advanced a preliminary hypothesis, based on satellite imagery shared by Chinese counterparts through the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), that anice-and-rock avalanche blocked the Lhende Khola, a Bhote Koshi tributary on the Nepal-China border, roughly20 km upstream of the Miteri Bridge, forming a temporary debris-dammed lake that subsequently burst. The US Geological Survey initially logged a magnitude-4.4 earthquake at 08:37local time shortly before the flood, but has since revised its analysis, concluding that the seismic signal was infact a magnitude-5.2 glacial collapse, not a tectonic earthquake, based on nearby seismic stations, long-period seismic waves and satellite imagery. Meteorologists ruled out heavy local rainfall as the cause in Rasuwa itself, while noting that satellite data showed rainfall on the Tibetan side of the border. A broadly similar flood on the same river in July 2025 was ultimately attributed to the drainage of a supraglacial lake; ICIMOD scientists say such cascading glacial hazards are increasing at an“ unprecedented” pace across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.
The Government of Nepal has mobilized the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police, supported by military and private helicopters, for search, rescue and relief operations, and the Cabinet has ordered free medical treatment for the injured, financial assistance to bereaved families, and the reopening of roads, restoration of power and telecommunications, and provision of food and shelter for those displaced. Nepal has asked China and India for assistance; China has pledged relief funding, and India is sending humanitarian supplies, while Indian authorities in neighboring Bihar state have opened the Valmikinagar Barrage on the Gandak River as a precaution and prepared to evacuate up to 10,000–12,000people downstream. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has released emergency funding to the Nepal Red Cross Society, which has begun distributing water, tarpaulins, blankets and first-aid supplies, though many of the worst-affected communities in Rasuwa remain difficult to reach because roads and bridges are destroyed (IFRC 26/08/2026).As of the data cut-off, no government or humanitarian body had published a consolidated total for people displaced, sheltering or in need, and this report treats that figure as a priority information gap for the days ahead (see Key Limitations and Information Gaps).
