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Major news update
A flash flood came down the Bhote Koshi from Tibet into Rasuwa on 26 August 2026. Here is what is confirmed, what is still unknown, and who to call. Nepal Police: 1,252 confirmed dead, as of 3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT.
Day 8 Checking for new reports…
A flash flood came down the Bhotekoshi from Tibet into Rasuwa on 26 August 2026. Here is what is confirmed, what is still unknown, and who to call.
Nepal Police, 3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT. Every figure and where it came from
These figures are read automatically from the published reports as they appear, and are not written or checked by hand. listed missing: 4,875, up from…
September 3, Kathmandu Nepal Police has begun a DNA testing process to search for citizens who went missing in the Bhotekoshi River flood in Rasuwa, and…
Surkhet, September 3 Residents and travellers have been forced to risk their lives to cross the Taksugad stream after floods washed away a bridge and a…
Unidentified bodies from the Bhotekoshi flood being managed. Kathmandu, September 2 At least 1,204 bodies have been recovered following the devastating…
KATHMANDU: Specialized international tunnel rescue and forensic teams from India, China, South Korea, and Singapore have joined Nepali security forces in…
Each story of the day, short and checked. Tap a card to read it all.
3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT updated
Latest reported figures: 1,252 confirmed dead
These figures are read automatically from the published reports as they appear, and are not written or checked by hand. listed missing: 4,875, up from 4,216, reported by Nepal Police.
Where a report describes one district or one stretch of river rather than the national figure, it is not used here. Out of contact does not mean dead.
3 September 2026, 10:48 am NPT
Missing flood victims’ families called for DNA testing
September 3, Kathmandu Nepal Police has begun a DNA testing process to search for citizens who went missing in the Bhotekoshi River flood in Rasuwa, and to identify unclaimed bodies and human remains that have been recovered.
Reported by Onlinekhabar. Read automatically from that report; follow the link for the full story.
3 September 2026, 10:46 am NPT
Locals risk lives crossing Taksugad after flood washes away bridge
Surkhet, September 3 Residents and travellers have been forced to risk their lives to cross the Taksugad stream after floods washed away a bridge and a temporary causeway between wards 10 and 11 of Nalgad Municipality in Jajarkot along the…
Reported by Onlinekhabar. Read automatically from that report; follow the link for the full story.
2 September 2026, 8:59 pm NPT
Bhotekoshi flood leaves 1,204 dead; 4,216 still unaccounted for
Unidentified bodies from the Bhotekoshi flood being managed. Kathmandu, September 2 At least 1,204 bodies have been recovered following the devastating floods in Rasuwa, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management…
Reported by Onlinekhabar. This card was filled in automatically from the source's own report, to keep the day from reading as empty. Follow the link for the full story.
2 September 2026, 8:58 pm NPT
Multinational rescue operations underway in Bhote Koshi flood zone: MoFA
KATHMANDU: Specialized international tunnel rescue and forensic teams from India, China, South Korea, and Singapore have joined Nepali security forces in a massive search, rescue, and identification operation following catastrophic…
Reported by Nepalnews. This card was filled in automatically from the source's own report, to keep the day from reading as empty. Follow the link for the full story.
2 September 2026, 8:00 pm NPT updated
Latest reported figures: 1,222 confirmed dead
These figures are read automatically from the published reports as they appear, and are not written or checked by hand. confirmed dead: 1,222, up from 1,204, reported by Nepal Police. rescued: 11,993, up from 8,730, reported by Nepalnews.
Where a report describes one district or one stretch of river rather than the national figure, it is not used here. Out of contact does not mean dead.
Updated 3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT
01. Confirmed
Confirmed deaths only, both sides of the border. Tap a row for the breakdown.
Rasuwa flash flood, 26 August 2026 · as of 3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT · Nepal Police
Tap any number to see where it comes from. Early counts move. Where sources disagree, the lower confirmed figure is shown.
In danger right now? Tap to call.
The flood started in Rasuwa, but the water carried people far downstream. 4,875 people are still listed missing. A district here is where a body was found, not where the person was from.
| District | Bodies recovered |
|---|---|
| Chitwan | 355 |
| Nawalparasi East | 218 |
| Nawalparasi West | 190 |
| Nuwakot | 177 |
| Rasuwa | 127 |
| Gorkha | 69 |
| Dhading | 60 |
| Tanahun | 38 |
| India (returned) | 18 |
Nepal Police bulletin, 3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT, totalling 1,252. Read automatically from the bulletin, not typed in. The headline figure above can be higher: it takes the first national total any source publishes, and the police breakdown follows.
Three deaths confirmed near Gyirong (Kyirong) county, just over the border from Rasuwagadhi, where the dry port and customs area were hit. China has said it is reviewing its own flood monitoring for the Kyirong valley.
No deaths of foreign nationals have been confirmed. Syabrubesi is the gateway to the Langtang trek, so trekker whereabouts are being checked through the Tourist Police (1144) and trekking operators.
Updated as new figures are confirmed. Where two sources disagree, the lower confirmed number is shown.
02. Timeline
Pieced together from police, local officials, and news reports. Times are approximate.
Seismic stations picked up a signal near the border. The US Geological Survey first called it a magnitude 4.4 earthquake, then revised it: the signal was a magnitude 5.2 glacial collapse, not a quake.
The Bhotekoshi River suddenly rose at the border. It wasn't raining nearby, so plain rain wasn't the cause.
Timure and Syabrubesi, two border towns, were hit hardest. Nine bank branches were swept away. The local helipad was destroyed, which slowed rescue by air.
The flood reached towns further downstream: Betrawati and Trishuli Bazar, Galchhi and Dhunge Bazaar, then past Muglin into the Narayani. 14 hydropower projects were damaged.
Nepal's Army, Police, and Armed Police are searching for survivors with helicopters. China has confirmed deaths on its side too.
Read automatically from the published bulletins and reports, not typed in. These are the same figures as the counters at the top of this page, from the same file, so the two cannot disagree. Last moved 3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT, from Nepal Police.
| Figure | Count | What the source said |
|---|---|---|
| confirmed dead | 1,252 | Nepal Police: 1,252. Up from 1,222. Read automatically from the published report, not edited by hand. |
| listed missing in Nepal | 4,875 | Nepal Police: 4,875. Up from 4,216. Read automatically from the published report, not edited by hand. |
| missing on the China side | 546 | Xinhua reports 546 people missing around Gyirong Port in Xizang (Tibet) as of 6pm Saturday, including 261 foreign nationals. Combined with Nepal's 2,502-person list that is 3,048 people unaccounted for across both countries, although the two countries' counts may overlap. |
| rescued so far | 11,993 | Nepalnews: 11,993. Up from 8,730. Read automatically from the published report, not edited by hand. |
| hydropower projects damaged | 14 | The Nepal Electricity Authority reports 14 projects damaged with a combined capacity of about 748 MW: 9 operating plants (354 MW) and 5 under construction (394 MW). Named ones include Rasuwagadhi, Chilime, Sanjen Khola, Upper Trishuli-1, Trishuli and Devighat, plus a 220 kV substation. An earlier same-day Ministry of Energy estimate said 431 MW. |
| damage, early estimate | Rs 200bn | Physical Infrastructure Minister Sunil Lamsal put damage to roads and bridges at about Rs 200 billion on 26 August, and called it preliminary. Hydropower and private property are not in that figure. The whole 42 km road from Betrawati to the Rasuwagadhi border crossing was destroyed at multiple points. |
| relief fund deposited | Rs 5.04bn | Prime Minister Balen Shah said Rs 5.04 billion had been deposited in nine commercial bank accounts for flood rescue and relief, Onlinekhabar reported at 9:04pm Saturday. The same report said another US$1.8 million was deposited at Himalayan Bank and Laxmi Bank. This is money deposited in the fund, not the separate Rs 1 billion released by the government. |
Search and rescue is still running, so every number here can change. Tap any counter at the top of the page for the sentence it came from.
03. Cause
No government has confirmed the cause yet. It was not raining nearby, so ordinary rain is ruled out. Best current read, from experts reviewing satellite images:
Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and independent glaciologists, using satellite images shared through ICIMOD, say an ice-and-rock avalanche blocked the Lhende Khola about 20 km upstream of the Miteri Bridge. That made a temporary lake behind the debris, which then burst. They call it preliminary.
A lake of meltwater held back by ice can break free on its own, with no rain. Over 20 lakes in Nepal are rated dangerous, and many more sit unmonitored across the border.
The US Geological Survey first logged a magnitude 4.4 earthquake at 08:37, minutes before the water rose. It has since revised that: the signal was a magnitude 5.2 glacial collapse, not a tectonic quake. The tremor was the collapse being recorded, not a separate trigger.
The Lende Khola (Lhende) valley in Kyirong county, Tibet, upstream of Rasuwagadhi. Photos are openly licensed, pulled live from Wikimedia Commons with credit.
Map centred near the suspected landslide site, about 20 km north of the border inside Tibet. Exact coordinates are approximate, from published reporting.
04. Questions
The things people are searching for most, answered short.
On the morning of 26 August 2026 a flash flood came down the Bhote Koshi river from the Tibet side of the border into Rasuwa district. Timure, Syabrubesi, the Rasuwagadhi border crossing and around a dozen riverside settlements took the heaviest impact, and the water carried on down the Trishuli into the Narayani. The Nepal Electricity Authority reports 14 hydropower projects damaged, about 748 MW.
No government has confirmed a cause. The leading explanation, from Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and independent glaciologists working with satellite imagery shared through ICIMOD, is an ice-and-rock avalanche that blocked the Lhende Khola inside Tibet about 20 km upstream of the Miteri Bridge, forming a temporary debris-dammed lake that then burst. The US Geological Survey has reassessed the tremor recorded minutes earlier as a magnitude 5.2 glacial collapse, not an earthquake. Heavy local rainfall in Rasuwa is ruled out. Full explanation.
Rasuwa took the first and heaviest impact, especially Timure, Syabrubesi and the Rasuwagadhi border crossing. The surge then moved through Betrawati and Trishuli Bazar in Nuwakot, Galchhi and Dhunge Bazaar in Dhading, and past Muglin into the Narayani. Bodies have been recovered in Chitwan, Nawalparasi East and West, Gorkha and Tanahun as well. Three deaths are confirmed on the Chinese side near Gyirong.
Kathmandu itself was not flooded. The damage runs along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river valleys in Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, north-west of the capital. Road links to the Chinese border through Rasuwagadhi have been badly disrupted.
Nepal Police 100, ambulance 102, fire brigade 101, traffic police 103, and 112 from any mobile phone. The National Emergency Operation Centre disaster hotline is 1149, the Nepal Police toll-free helpline is 1155, and Tourist Police is 1144. All of them are tap-to-dial on the Emergency tab.
The Government of Nepal's own channel is the Prime Minister's Natural Disaster Relief Fund, run by the Office of the Prime Minister. Bank account details and the official QR code are on the Help tab. Be careful of fake appeals, which appear within hours of any disaster.
Syabrubesi is the main gateway to Langtang trekking and was directly hit, including the loss of its helipad. Roads along the river valley have been damaged. Check with Nepal Police, the Tourist Police on 1144, and your trekking operator before travelling.
Today
Each story of the day, short and checked. New stories appear through the day. Tap a card to read it all.
3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT updated
Latest reported figures: 1,252 confirmed dead
These figures are read automatically from the published reports as they appear, and are not written or checked by hand. listed missing: 4,875, up from 4,216, reported by Nepal Police.
Where a report describes one district or one stretch of river rather than the national figure, it is not used here. Out of contact does not mean dead.
3 September 2026, 10:48 am NPT
Missing flood victims’ families called for DNA testing
September 3, Kathmandu Nepal Police has begun a DNA testing process to search for citizens who went missing in the Bhotekoshi River flood in Rasuwa, and to identify unclaimed bodies and human remains that have been recovered.
Reported by Onlinekhabar. Read automatically from that report; follow the link for the full story.
3 September 2026, 10:46 am NPT
Locals risk lives crossing Taksugad after flood washes away bridge
Surkhet, September 3 Residents and travellers have been forced to risk their lives to cross the Taksugad stream after floods washed away a bridge and a temporary causeway between wards 10 and 11 of Nalgad Municipality in Jajarkot along the…
Reported by Onlinekhabar. Read automatically from that report; follow the link for the full story.
2 September 2026, 8:59 pm NPT
Bhotekoshi flood leaves 1,204 dead; 4,216 still unaccounted for
Unidentified bodies from the Bhotekoshi flood being managed. Kathmandu, September 2 At least 1,204 bodies have been recovered following the devastating floods in Rasuwa, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management…
Reported by Onlinekhabar. This card was filled in automatically from the source's own report, to keep the day from reading as empty. Follow the link for the full story.
2 September 2026, 8:58 pm NPT
Multinational rescue operations underway in Bhote Koshi flood zone: MoFA
KATHMANDU: Specialized international tunnel rescue and forensic teams from India, China, South Korea, and Singapore have joined Nepali security forces in a massive search, rescue, and identification operation following catastrophic…
Reported by Nepalnews. This card was filled in automatically from the source's own report, to keep the day from reading as empty. Follow the link for the full story.
2 September 2026, 8:00 pm NPT updated
Latest reported figures: 1,222 confirmed dead
These figures are read automatically from the published reports as they appear, and are not written or checked by hand. confirmed dead: 1,222, up from 1,204, reported by Nepal Police. rescued: 11,993, up from 8,730, reported by Nepalnews.
Where a report describes one district or one stretch of river rather than the national figure, it is not used here. Out of contact does not mean dead.
Updated 3 September 2026, 2:00 pm NPT
Official
The feed below refreshes on its own. UN disaster alerts, the US Geological Survey earthquake service, and named newsrooms, pulled through this site's own server. Each card is a headline and a link, so you read the story at the source.
The written summaries further down are checked by a person. This feed is not. Where they disagree, trust the source link.
Death and damage counts are still being confirmed. Six power stations damaged so far.
Army, Police, and Armed Police searching by helicopter where landing is still possible.
China confirms deaths on its side, near Gyirong. Reviewing its own flood monitoring.
Official bulletins, rewritten short. The source sits beside each one so you can read the original.
Search and rescue is running in Rasuwa and Nuwakot. Army, Police and Armed Police teams are working the river corridor, with helicopters used where they can still land.
Read NDRRMA's own bulletins ↗Missing-person reports are being taken at district police offices. Families are asked to give a full name, age, last known location and what the person was wearing.
Read Nepal Police posts ↗The Prime Minister's Natural Disaster Relief Fund is the government's own channel for donations towards rescue and rebuilding. Bank details are on the Help tab.
Office of the Prime Minister ↗The flood came down the Bhotekoshi from the Tibet side on a morning with no rain nearby. Experts studying satellite images point to a mass of ice and rock that dammed a mountain stream and then gave way. No government has confirmed a cause yet.
See the full source listEvery incident recorded nationwide in the last three weeks, from BIPAD, the government's own disaster portal. Floods, landslides, fires, all of it. A record, not a news summary.
From UN OCHA's ReliefWeb and GDACS, refreshed automatically. Agency Facebook pages are linked below.
Official channels, straight from the response:
Three things about this valley that decided how bad it got
The river drops about 3,000 metres in under 40 km, one of the steepest drops in the Himalaya. Water from a burst upstream can reach a village in under an hour. Almost no time to run.
Above the join it is called Bhotekoshi. Below it, Trishuli. Same water. In Tibet the upper river is the Kyirong Tsangpo, fed by the Lende Khola, where the ice and rock came down.
A broadly similar flood hit this same river in July 2025, traced to a lake draining off the surface of a glacier. Hydropower on this corridor has now been damaged twice in just over a year.
Highest first, with what was hit at each one
| Place | Elevation | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Lende Khola, Tibet | ~5,000 m | Suspected ice and rock landslide that dammed, then released, the stream. |
| Rasuwagadhi / Gyirong | ~1,850 m | Border crossing. Customs and the dry port were hit on both sides. |
| Timure | ~1,900 m | Border town. Hit first and hardest. Bank branches and customs post swept away. |
| Syabrubesi | ~1,470 m | Helipad destroyed, which slowed rescue flights. Bhotekoshi meets the Trishuli here. |
| Betrawati | ~730 m | Flood reached here further downstream, still moving fast. |
| Devighat | ~460 m | Furthest downstream site hit. Hydropower station damaged. |
100Nepal Police, from any phone In immediate danger, call first. Everything else on this tab can wait.
Emergency
Tap any number below to dial it. These are national numbers and work from any phone in Nepal. From a mobile, 112 also reaches emergency services.
100 / 101 / 102 / 103 / 112 confirmed against the public emergency-number register. 1149, 1155 and 1144 are the published hotlines of the National Emergency Operation Centre and Nepal Police. If a line is busy, try 100 or 112.
Numbers below the national ones change by district and by hospital, so this links to the official directories that publish them rather than printing digits that may be out of date. Every link is a government or Red Cross page.
Call the nearest District Police Office or 100. Give full name, age, last known location, and what they were wearing.
Register the same details with the local ward office, they hold the evacuation and shelter lists.
If the person may have crossed into China at Rasuwagadhi, tell the police that specifically. Cross-border checks are handled separately.
Keep one phone number reachable and charged. Rescue teams call back, often from an unknown number.
Contact your own country's embassy in Kathmandu first, they coordinate directly with Nepal Police on foreign nationals. The Department of Immigration holds entry records that help confirm whether someone entered the district.
Straight from the US Geological Survey, updated automatically. Aftershocks and new quakes in the Nepal region appear here first.
Give
Every link goes to Nepal's own government fund. This site never handles your money.
Nepal's own government fund for disaster rescue and rebuilding. The only place this page recommends. Bank details below are transcribed from the Prime Minister's Office's own graphic.
The government opened its own online donation gateway on 27 August 2026: pmdrf.nchl.com.np. Run by Nepal Clearing House for the Office of the Prime Minister. International and Nepali cards, NepalPay QR, connectIPS, mobile banking and wallets. You are charged in Nepali rupees, so your own bank sets the exchange rate.
This is the only payment link on this site, and it is here because the Office of the Prime Minister published it itself. The older address pmrelief.opmcm.gov.np still does not load, checked 28 Aug 2026.
| Bank | Account |
|---|---|
| Himalayan Bank (USD account) | 01905631210046 |
| Standard Chartered Bank Nepal | 01013243801 02013243801 |
| Rastriya Banijya Bank | 1130100003762001 1130100000006006 |
| Everest Bank | 00100105200270 00101102200012 |
| Nepal Bank | 00211600510039000003 00200100510039000001 |
| Global IME Bank | 00401010000057 00411010000005 |
| Nabil Bank | 1710017505285 |
| Agricultural Development Bank | 0100201002907014 |
Prime Minister's Relief Fund (general, not disaster-specific):
| Bank | Account |
|---|---|
| Rastriya Banijya Bank | 1430100000025006 1430100001164001 |
Official QR, from PMO Nepal directly.
Blood is needed after any disaster; the Nepal Red Cross runs collection across Kathmandu. Verified local photos, missing-person details and shelter reports also help, they are what response teams work from.
Fake relief appeals appear within hours of every disaster. Check the account name matches a registered organisation, be suspicious of personal wallets, and never send money because a message says the deadline is tonight.
Learn
Nepal sits where two continents collide, under monsoon rain and below melting ice. Five hazards come out of that. Which one you are facing changes what you should do.
High in the mountains, melting glaciers leave lakes behind. The wall holding one back is often just loose rock and ice. When it fails, the whole lake leaves at once and races down the valley as a wall of water, mud, and boulders.
Warning signs: the river suddenly rises or suddenly stops, on a day with no rain. A roar from upstream. Water turning grey or brown.
What to do: go uphill, away from the river, immediately. Not along the road, roads follow rivers. You may have minutes, not hours.
Nepal's exposure: more than 20 glacial lakes are classified as potentially dangerous, and many more sit across the border in Tibet where Nepal has no monitoring.
India is pushing under Asia at about 2 cm a year. That strain releases as earthquakes. The 2015 Gorkha earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people.
What to do during shaking: drop, cover, hold on. Get under a sturdy table, away from windows. Do not run outside mid-shake, falling masonry is the main killer.
After: expect aftershocks. Avoid damaged buildings, steep slopes and riverbanks, a quake loosens both.
Steep slopes plus heavy rain plus cut roads equals landslides. They cause a large share of Nepal's monsoon deaths every year, usually at night, usually with no warning.
Warning signs: new cracks in the ground or in walls, doors and windows suddenly sticking, tilting trees or poles, a rumbling that grows.
What to do: move sideways off the slope path, not straight downhill. If indoors on a slope at night in heavy rain, sleep on the uphill side of the house.
June to September brings most of Nepal's yearly rain. In the Tarai plains, rivers spread out slowly over days; in the hills they rise in hours.
What to do: never walk or drive into moving water. Thirty centimetres will float a car, fifteen will knock an adult over. Turn around.
Watch: the BIPAD portal publishes live river gauge levels for major rivers.
Less talked about, still deadly. Lightning kills around 100 people a year in Nepal. Dry-season fires spread fast through village housing; winter cold waves hit the Tarai hardest.
Lightning rule: when you hear thunder within 30 seconds of a flash, go inside for 30 minutes after the last thunder. Not under a lone tree.
Know a route uphill, not along the road. Roads follow rivers, and they flood first.
Loud river noise, or water rising with no rain, is the warning. Move first, ask questions later.
Keep ID, cash, medicines and a torch in one bag you can grab in the dark.
Pick a family meeting spot above the flood line. Phones stop working first.
If you run a shop or homestay by the river, plan to lose the ground floor. Know what's load-bearing.
Save the emergency numbers on the next tab into your phone now, not during the emergency.
A burst lake can reach a village in under an hour. Some Nepali lakes now have sensors and sirens. Most, especially those across the border, do not, so the first warning is often the sound of the river itself.
Himalayan ice is melting faster than it is replaced. More meltwater means more and bigger lakes held back by weaker walls, in valleys where more people now live and build than a generation ago.
Learn more from the people who study this:
Sources
If something here is not traceable to one of these, it should not be here. Tell us and we will pull it.
Wikipedia, 2026 Nepal floods
CNN live coverage
NPR
US News (Reuters)
Al Jazeera
The Week
Kathmandu Post
India TV News, satellite image analysis
GDACS, the UN and European Commission disaster alert system.
USGS earthquake service, public domain.
ReliefWeb, UN OCHA humanitarian reporting.
Wikimedia Commons, for the openly licensed photos and video.
Satellite imagery © Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics and the GIS user community, used under Esri's attribution terms.
Terrain from OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA).
Street map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Place links open in Google Maps in a new tab; no Google imagery is copied onto this page.
