Number of missing in Nepal floods passes 2,400 as UNICEF says 17,000 children need aid

The count of missing individuals in Nepal and China exceeded 2,400 on Friday, highlighting the disaster’s massive scale after a tsunami‑like wave of water and debris devastated villages and claimed hundreds of lives.

Rescue crews worked through heavy mud as the risk of additional flooding persisted, having recovered 586 bodies to date, while some victims were carried downstream toward India.

The updated figures appeared as Nepal’s disaster agency added 933 hydropower workers to the missing list, which already contained trekkers and pilgrims heading to Tibet’s holy Mount Kailash.

Relatives have flooded hospitals in Nepal’s capital, desperately searching for missing family members, while wall posters display photographs and names of the absent.

“It’s the third day and we have no information; hopefully he is safe,” said Samjhana Thing, 27, to AFP, adding, “We have lost everything; he is our everything.”

The US Geological Survey attributed the disaster—the deadliest in Nepal since the 2015 earthquake—to a glacial collapse that unleashed a massive flow of icy debris.

The flood of ice and mud also created large lakes, one of which now poses a direct danger to emergency workers searching for survivors.

Nepali police urged all rescuers to “move immediately to a safe location,” after receiving reports that a water dam had burst again on the Tibetan side.

In Tibet, Chinese authorities paused rescue operations in the hardest‑hit Gyirong area on Friday due to renewed flood risk, later stating that the threat had subsided.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that a debris‑filled lake began overflowing toward rescue teams, though later indicated that the water level had receded.

Rescue operations are therefore proceeding in an orderly manner, it added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, chairing a rescue‑efforts meeting, pledged Beijing’s assistance to Nepal’s emergency operations.

Swept away

Emergency teams raced to retrieve survivors from the devastated zones, where food and water supplies were rapidly depleting.

The Nepali military identified individuals trapped inside the tunnel of the Trishuli 3A hydropower project and is working to gain entry and extract them.

“Two helicopters have been dispatched, but locating the tunnel’s entry points remains challenging,” army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.

Approximately 350 workers and residents have been evacuated safely, he said, while rescue efforts continue to free more than 100 people still trapped in the area.

Aid Trickles In

Aid started reaching some survivors in Nepal on Friday as the full scope of the devastation became clearer and people sought shelter at makeshift army relief centres.

Children separated from their families are receiving shelter while authorities work to reunite them with their families.

UNICEF, the UN agency for children, reported that at least 17,000 children urgently require humanitarian assistance, with 18 schools destroyed and another 20 damaged.

The International Red Cross estimates that at least 93,000 people have been affected and are in great need.

On Friday, the European Union pledged €2 million in aid for Nepal, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stating on X that the immediate humanitarian assistance would deliver life‑saving aid to the hardest‑hit families and communities.

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