KATHMANDU - More than 1,400 people went missing and hundreds died after a catastrophic flash flood and mudslide hit areas along the border between Nepal and China's Tibet Autonomous Region, local authorities said Thursday.
Search and rescue efforts continued a day after the disaster, which reports said may have been caused by a glacier collapse, as the combined death toll from both sides of the border surpassed 390.
Nepal tourism authorities said the missing people include foreign travelers from more than 30 countries, including India, Malaysia, Ukraine and the United States.
Among the missing is also a family of five Japanese, including children, who entered the South Asian country from the Chinese side, according to Nepali authorities. The Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu has asked local authorities to search for the family, which appears to have been traveling as part of a tour.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent messages to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang as well as Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah, expressing condolences to the victims' families and hoping for a swift recovery for those affected by the disaster, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
A section of the glacier about 1 kilometer wide and 2 km long likely broke off and fell about 1.2 km to the valley floor, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by Hidenori Watanabe, a professor at the University of Tokyo.
The Bhotekoshi River in Nepal's mountainous Rasuwa region overflowed, damaging houses and infrastructure, including a hydroelectric power station.
China's Xinhua News Agency said three people were killed and more than 550 others unaccounted for following a mudslide in Shigatse, a major city in the country's autonomous region of Tibet.
