A relative of Prabita Roila, 32, who lost her life following deadly flash floods and a mudslide, lights her funeral pyre at the Suryamati River in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal. [Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters]
By AFP, AP and Reuters31 Aug 2026
Devastating floods near Nepal’s border with China have killed at least 939 people, the country’s disaster authority says, as the death toll continues to rise and rescue efforts enter a sixth day.
Chinese state media has confirmed a further 16 deaths in Tibet, bringing the known regional toll to 955, with 4,471 people still missing on both sides of the border.
Nepal’s latest figures list 3,925 people missing nationwide, including 592 foreigners. Many of the missing are workers from hydropower projects that took the full force of the torrent, although officials say the number of unaccounted-for hydropower staff fell to 639 on Monday from an earlier count of 933.
The disaster agency says 3,333 Nepali citizens remain missing, with some of the worst-hit areas including Nuwakot district, where 1,158 people are unaccounted for, and neighbouring Rasuwa, with 865 missing. The missing also includes 45 army soldiers, 38 police officers and 18 customs and immigration officials.
In neighbouring India, authorities in Uttar Pradesh state say they have recovered 17 bodies from rivers flowing from Nepal, believed to be flood victims, though they are not yet included in the official toll.
Members of the Nepal Army stand near retrieved bodies that were washed away following flash floods and a mudslide in the Narayani River, Chitwan, Nepal. [Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters]Sunmaya Tamang waits outside an army camp for the news of her missing relatives in Nepal’s Nuwakot district. [Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP]People salvage belongings following flash floods that swept through Devighat in Nepal’s Nuwakot district. [Arun Sankar/AFP]Nepal’s paramilitary force personnel carry the body of a flash flood victim for burial at a mass burial site in Chitwan, Nepal. [Dar Yasin/AP]Muna Khadka, center, mother of Aayush Khada, who was killed in flash floods, breaks down during her son’s cremation in Chitwan, Nepal. [Dar Yasin/AP]Nepal’s paramilitary forces arrange numbered identification tags in pots to mark the graves of flash flood victims at a mass burial site in Chitwan. [Dar Yasin/AP]A boy climbs on a ledge to paste photographs of missing persons in the aftermath of flash floods at the Tribhuvan University Teaching hospital in Kathmandu as distraught families search for information on their missing relatives. [Manan Vatsyayana/AFP]Kathmandu has appealed for international support, saying Nepal needed “more than a thousand” freezer units to store bodies. [Dar Yasin/AP Photo]With mortuaries overflowing with the dead, Nepal has begun burying some of the hundreds of bodies recovered after taking DNA samples so families can later retrieve them. [Dar Yasin/AP Photo]
