The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and China point to the collapse of a glacier as the cause of the immense flood that struck a border area between northern Nepal and Tibet (southwest China) the day before, with a death toll of 362 and some 1.400 missing reported by both sides.
"It was a glacial collapse and debris flow," the USGS determined on Thursday, which initially linked the origin of the tragedy to a magnitude 4,4 earthquake in Nepal and, later, to a landslide.
Meanwhile, experts from the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources determined through satellite images that the disaster originated from the detachment of a mass of ice in a glacial area of Nepal located between 5.200 and 5.500 meters above sea level.
According to Beijing, the mass dragged glacial materials and descended at high speed until it became a debris flow and later a mudslide that reached the border port of Gyirong after traveling about 20 kilometers in just seven minutes.
The number of deaths is increasing
Police say 332 bodies have been recovered, according to Xinhua figures, while the EFE news agency reports 359 so far, following the floods in Nepal.
As of 15:50 p.m. local time on Thursday, a total of 332 bodies had been recovered from flooded areas in Nepal, the country's police said in a statement. Police personnel evacuated families from flood-prone areas to safety and conducted search and rescue operations in coordination with other government agencies and local residents, the statement said. So far, 27 foreign tourists have been rescued, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reported.
According to the latest tally from the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), at least 644 tourists registered in the disaster zone are still missing, 517 of them foreigners.
China has so far reported three deaths and 558 missing persons in the Tibetan county of Gyirong, bringing the provisional total to 362 dead and about 1.400 missing.
Chinese authorities evacuated residents from several towns in Tibet on Thursday threatened by the possible collapse of a lake that formed after a flash flood hit a border area between northern Nepal and southwestern Tibet on Wednesday.
The lake formed near the confluence of a river from Nepal with another river in Tibet and contained about two million cubic meters of water on Thursday, according to data from the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources released by state television CCTV.
The natural reservoir was already overflowing, and authorities estimate that another three million cubic meters could be added over the next three days, increasing the risk of a rupture and a sudden discharge of water, while the flow is expected to reach its maximum on September 1.
The Tibetan Department of Natural Resources reported that threatened residents of several downstream communities had been moved to safety.
Tibet, the scene this Wednesday of a serious flash flood on the border between China and Nepal that left hundreds missing on the Chinese side, is a region of great strategic importance for Beijing, subject to tight political and religious control and whose access remains heavily restricted for foreign journalists and observers.
LThe catastrophe struck the Tibetan county of Gyirong, bordering Nepal, And it once again focused on a region of the Himalayas that also borders India and Bhutan and that is especially sensitive for Beijing because of its border disputes with New Delhi, the succession of the Dalai Lama and its growing hydroelectric importance.
