29/08/2026 – 22:26Thank you for following this liveblog
Rescuers in Nepal and China on Saturday continued to search for the nearly 3,000 people missing after devastating flooding along the border with China engulfed entire villages earlier this week. At least 682 bodies were recovered in both countries, including 675 in Nepal and seven in China.Click on the link below for an overview of the latest developments.
29/08/2026 – 20:48Rescuers dig into tunnel as missing toll from Nepal, China flood nears 3,000
Rescuers in Nepal and China on Saturday battled to locate thousands of people missing days after a deadly, tsunami-like wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan region, engulfing entire villages.Figures from both countries put the number of missing close to 3,000, with 682 bodies recovered – and reports of some dead possibly swept downstream as far away as India.In a breakthrough late Saturday, the Nepali army was able to insert a pipe into a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site where workers are believed to be trapped.”We have already started sending air through the small opening, and we will now begin excavation work and send the rescue team inside,” Home Minister Sudan Gurung said in a statement.
29/08/2026 – 18:59Nepal rescuers send air pipe into tunnel with trapped workers
Nepali army rescuers broke through to a hydropower tunnel on Saturday and began pumping air and sending a camera inside, raising hopes of reaching workers trapped since devastating floods struck the site three days earlier.Nepal’s government says more than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside tunnels at hydropower projects, with rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites.Those trapped are among 933 hydropower workers missing since a wall of mud and debris swept down on Wednesday morning, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
29/08/2026 – 18:07Nepal warns of climate threat after deadly floods
Nepal’s foreign minister warned on Saturday of the growing threat from climate change in the Himalayas, as China offered water and satellite data after devastating floods on their shared border killed hundreds.The US Geological Survey said the disaster on Wednesday near the high-altitude China-Nepal border was caused by a glacial collapse that sent a torrent of debris downstream. While the exact cause of the collapse is unclear, climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risks of such disasters.Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said he had spoken by phone with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, agreeing to increase the sharing of “real-time hydrological data”, according to a statement.Wang, in a Chinese foreign ministry statement, said Beijing had “shared crucial information with Nepal, including disaster area imagery, satellite and hydrological data, as well as early warnings about upstream barrier lakes”.Wang added that “China and Nepal are bound by mountains and rivers, sharing a common destiny”.
29/08/2026 – 17:57? ‘Extremely risky operations’: Rescuers work amid threat of river banks bursting
Nearly 3,000 people remained missing on Saturday, while 682 deaths had been confirmed after flash floods and landslides hit the Nepal-Tibet border. Rescue operations remain risky as a lake formed upstream by the floods threatens to burst its banks. ?FRANCE 24’s Shahzaib Wahlah reports.
29/08/2026 – 17:11
29/08/2026 – 14:51? Nepal rescuers drill for 100 workers trapped in tunnels
Nepali army rescue teams were using drilling equipment on Saturday in a race to rescue more than 100 people trapped inside hydropower tunnels, 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,” the office of Nepal’s prime minister said in a statement. “As part of these efforts, work to clear the tunnel entrance has been intensified since early Saturday morning,” it said.Those trapped are among 933 missing people who work on hydropower projects on the rivers where a wall of water swept down on Wednesday morning, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.The agency said on Thursday that the army had already rescued 350 people under “extremely risky” conditions, but that more than 100 remained trapped.
29/08/2026 – 12:44China sends experts to Nepal to help with tunnel rescue work
China ?has ?dispatched five tunnel experts from its ?Tibet ?region ?to ?Nepal for flood-related rescue ?work, Chinese state ?news agency ?Xinhua said.The assistance ?was sent via helicopter, at the ?request ?of the ?Nepal government ?for rescue operations at a hydropower station.
29/08/2026 – 12:42? Nepali army uses helicopters to rescue flood survivors
With roads damaged by the deadly floods, the Nepali army is using helicopters to carry out rescue operations and transport survivors to safety. Meanwhile, skies remain overcast, with more rain expected in the coming hours, raising concerns about further flooding. FRANCE 24’s Shahzaib Wahlah reports.
29/08/2026 – 11:32? In pictures: Flood survivors reach safe areas as families await news of nearly 3,000 missing
Flash floods survivors wait outside army camp to be taken to safer place from Nepal’s Nuwakot district on August 29, 2026. © Dar Yasin, APA woman and her child rescued from an area cut off by flash flooding stands for registration in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on August 29, 2026. © Dar Yasin, APA Nepalese army soldier carries an injured elderly woman rescued from an area cut off by flash flooding in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on August 29, 2026. © Dar Yasin, AP
29/08/2026 – 11:13Nepal says post-flood reconstruction could total ‘billions of dollars’
Nepal’s reconstruction bill after devastating floods could run into “billions of dollars”, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said, as authorities assess the scale of the destruction.”The reconstruction and rehabilitation would entail perhaps billions of dollars,” he told reporters in Kathmandu. “We will do loss and damage research and then we plan, but I am reaching out to our international community for support”.
29/08/2026 – 10:50? Nepalese gather at Kathmandu hospital in seach for loved ones
People in Nepal are gathering at Nepal University Hospital, where autopsies are being performed on bodies recovered after the devastating floods that killed thousands, in the hope of identifying and finding their loved ones.FRANCE 24’s Shahzaib Wahlah reports.
29/08/2026 – 09:16India steps up glacier monitoring after Nepal disaster
India is stepping up monitoring of its Himalayan regions bordering China and Nepal, days after deadly floods apparently triggered by a glacial collapse, authorities said.The US Geological Survey said the disaster on Wednesday on the Tibet-Nepal border was caused by a glacial collapse that created a torrent of debris, with nearly 3,000 missing and 633 confirmed dead.While the exact cause of the collapse is unclear, climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risks of such disasters.
29/08/2026 – 08:23Risk of lake burst near China-Nepal border disaster site wanes, Chinese authorities say
The threat of a lake formed after a glacier collapse bursting near the China-Nepal border where a devastating flood occurred earlier this week has decreased, Chinese authorities said, as its size appears to ?have shrunk.Satellite images ?from Thursday to Saturday morning suggest that water in the lake – straddling the China-Nepal ?border at the confluence of two rivers – has been slowly flowing through, decreasing the reservoir gradually, state broadcaster CCTV reported citing the Water Resources Ministry.The ministry said satellite ?imagery of the surface area of the lake at Purepu Tsangpo river showed it was 99,000 ?sqm in size – around the size of 14 football fields combined – having shrunk by 21,000 sqm compared with images from Thursday.
29/08/2026 – 07:23? ‘We are going to see more events like this’
The scale of Nepal’s disaster cannot yet be fully measured. Entire communities remain difficult to reach, tens of thousands of people have been affected, and official assessments are only beginning. But the central challenge is already clear: this cannot be treated solely as an immediate humanitarian emergency as signs suggest that the speed and destructive force of this extreme natural event could become more frequent.FRANCE 24’s William Hilderbrandt welcomes David Fisher, Head of Delegation, Nepal International Federation of Red Cross who tells us more.
29/08/2026 – 07:17Death toll in flash floods climbs to 633 with nearly 3,000 people missing
The number of missing soared close to 3,000, latest figures from both countries showed, with 633 bodies recovered – and reports of some dead possibly swept downstream as far away as India.In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal’s disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to a missing persons list already including trekkers and pilgrims to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash.Those that made it out say they have lost everything and now face an agonising wait to discover the fate of missing loved ones, and the prospect of rebuilding their lives from nothing.
29/08/2026 – 07:11? Relief camp shelters grieving families
Around 500 people are sheltering at a monastery-turned-relief camp in northern Kathmandu, where many families are still in shock after losing their homes and loved ones in the devastating Nepal floods.FRANCE 24’s Shahzaib Wahlah reports from the camp as rescue teams continue searching for nearly 1,500 missing people.
29/08/2026 – 06:59? Nepal-Tibet floods explained: The chain of events behind the disaster
A glacier broke apart. An ice and rock avalanche followed. Then came an earthquake, before a landslide triggered devastating floods that tore through kilometres of valley. This is what happened along the Nepal-China border, where rescue teams are still trying to recover survivors 48 hours after the catastrophe. FRANCE 24 breaks down the chain of events and the scientific explanations behind the disaster.