Chinese authorities raised the confirmed death toll from the Aug. 26 mudslide at Gyirong Port on the China–Nepal border to 31 late Friday, while 531 people remained missing. The official update, issued within the past 24 hours by the local emergency response command and reported by Xinhua, marked ten additional confirmed deaths since Wednesday as rescue teams continued searching the devastated high-altitude crossing in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The disaster began with an ice-and-rock avalanche in Nepal that generated a fast-moving surge of water, mud and debris through Himalayan valleys on both sides of the frontier. It destroyed buildings, electricity infrastructure and part of China’s G216 highway, isolating the port and severely complicating access for rescuers. Gyirong is an important overland trade and travel link between China and Nepal.
Xinhua said crews had recovered 987 personal belongings and identified 58 potential geological hazard sites along the restored rescue route by Wednesday. Authorities deployed about 2,300 personnel, more than 400 vehicles, over 8,000 pieces of specialist equipment, more than 800 drone flights and 24 helicopter flights. A group of 172 specialists assessed risks including further landslides in affected villages.
The wider cross-border catastrophe has killed more than 1,000 people and left more than 4,500 missing in China and Nepal, according to an Associated Press account published Friday. AP said Chinese access remained restricted largely to Xinhua and state broadcaster CCTV, meaning the Chinese figures depend on official reporting. Nepal, by contrast, has released frequent casualty lists and allowed broader media access.
Rescue operations produced a rare sign of hope on Friday when teams in Nepal pulled two workers alive from a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant nine days after the floods. One survivor was in critical condition, AP reported. Nepalese authorities said about 900 workers were missing from 12 hydropower projects, including roughly 500 believed trapped in tunnels, illustrating the scale of the search.
Chinese authorities have selected sites for two temporary shelters and assessed hazards in three affected villages. They also arranged food, medicine and alternative departures for Nepalese residents stranded in Gyirong after roads, communications and power failed. Searches and risk monitoring are continuing, but the large number still unaccounted for and the danger of secondary geological events leave the final human and economic cost uncertain.
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