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Missing persons: the Rasuwa flood
Nepal Police list 826 people missing, and Chinese state media a further 558 across the border. This page explains who is on those lists, what the numbers actually mean, and the exact steps to report someone, including from outside Nepal.
Reporting someone missing, right now
Call 100 (Nepal Police) or the nearest District Police Office. From outside Nepal, contact your own country’s embassy in Kathmandu first. Embassies coordinate directly with Nepal Police on foreign nationals.
Who is on the missing list
Nepal Police listed 826 people missing in Nepal in their bulletin of 27 August 2026, 8:15 am NPT.
| Group | Listed missing |
|---|---|
| Travellers (466 foreign nationals, 113 Nepalis) | 579 |
| Rasuwa residents | 161 |
| Nepali Army personnel | 44 |
| Nepal Police personnel | 28 |
| Armed Police Force personnel | 13 |
| Nuwakot residents | 1 |
| Total | 826 |
Where the missing travellers were from
Of the 579 travellers on the list, 466 are foreign nationals and 113 are Nepali. Most of the foreign travellers were moving toward the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage route through Tibet, which runs through the Rasuwagadhi crossing.
| Country | Listed missing |
|---|---|
| India | 133 |
| Malaysia | 55 |
| United States | 47 |
| Australia | 34 |
| United Kingdom | 33 |
| Canada | 24 |
Groups reported out of contact separately
These are counted apart from the police missing list, so do not add them to the total.
| Group | Out of contact |
|---|---|
| Hydropower project workers | 60 |
| Bank employees | 26 |
| Customs officers, Rasuwa customs office at Timure | 15 |
On the Chinese side of the border
Chinese state media (CCTV) report 558 people missing around the Gyirong Port trade hub in Xizang (Tibet), 260 of them foreign nationals. China has deployed rescue teams, People’s Liberation Army engineering units, helicopters and relief supplies. Rain and difficult terrain are slowing that effort.
Taken together, more than 1,300 people are unaccounted for across Nepal and Tibet, although the two countries’ counts of foreign nationals may overlap, so the true figure is likely lower than the sum.
Two things to hold in mind about this number
Out of contact does not mean dead. Phone lines, power and internet are down across the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli valleys and are coming back slowly. A large share of this list is people nobody has been able to reach, not people known to have been in the water. Names come off the list alive every day.
This figure is older than the death toll. It comes from the 27 August 2026, 8:15 am NPT bulletin; the confirmed death toll on this site is from 27 August 2026, 2:30 pm NPT. Some of the 826 have since been identified among the dead. Nepal Police have not published a revised missing figure alongside the newer toll, and this site will not estimate one.
How to report a missing person
Call the nearest District Police Office, or 100. Give the full name, age, last known location, and what the person was wearing.
Register the same details with the local ward office. Ward offices hold the evacuation and shelter lists, which the police list does not always include yet.
If the person may have crossed into China at Rasuwagadhi, say so specifically. Cross-border checks are handled through a separate channel.
Foreign nationals: contact your own country’s embassy in Kathmandu. Embassies coordinate directly with Nepal Police on foreign citizens, and the Department of Immigration holds the entry records that confirm whether someone entered the district.
Keep one phone number reachable and charged. Rescue teams call back, often from an unknown number.
If the person is found safe, tell the police office you registered with. An out-of-date missing list costs searcher time.
What information to have ready
- Full name as written on official ID, plus any name variants or spellings used locally.
- Age, and a recent photograph if you have one.
- Last known location and the time you last had contact. Even an approximate hour helps narrow a search sector.
- What the person was wearing, and anything distinctive: a bag, a jacket colour, a vehicle registration.
- Their mobile number and network, and the numbers of anyone travelling with them.
- Whether they had crossed, or planned to cross, into China at Rasuwagadhi.
Foreign nationals and families outside Nepal
If the person you are looking for is not a Nepali citizen, the fastest route is through their own embassy in Kathmandu rather than direct to a district police office. Embassies have a standing channel to Nepal Police for exactly this, and the Department of Immigration holds the entry records that confirm whether someone actually entered the district.
Why this site does not publish a missing-persons list
It would be easy to scrape names off social media and publish them here, and it would be wrong. Circulating unverified names of the missing does three kinds of harm: it exposes families to fraud and to press attention they did not ask for, it keeps names in public circulation after the person has been found, and it competes with the official list that rescue teams actually work from.
What this page does instead is explain exactly how the official process works, so that the right information reaches the people who can act on it. The register that matters is the one held by Nepal Police and the ward offices.
If you have information about a specific person, a sighting, a shelter they reached, a confirmation they are safe, give it to the police office where the report was filed. That is what shortens the list.
Beware of fraud
Fake "we have located your relative, send money for transport" messages appear after every disaster in Nepal and elsewhere. Nepal Police do not ask for payment to search for a missing person. Neither does any legitimate rescue organisation. If you receive that message, report it to the police office you registered with.