Nepal has reversed an earlier decision and says it will allow foreign teams and experts to help with rescue efforts
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenAssociated PressPublished: 4:21am, 29 Aug 2026Rescuers pulled out survivors caked in dark brown mud and helicopters lifted stranded people to safety, as Nepal and China raced to respond to catastrophic flash floods that killed nearly 600 people and left almost 2,500 missing.The rescue efforts included a team that rappelled into a severely damaged checkpoint area on the Chinese side of the border between the two countries.Rescuers were on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that formed high up in the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods on Wednesday. Experts warned that the lake, created after a glacier collapse that triggered the floods, was starting to overflow.
Nepal’s army was deployed to help rescue more than 100 people believed trapped inside a tunnel at a hydropower plant located in the country’s worst-hit district. Like elsewhere in the disaster zone, their work was complicated by thick layers of mud that covered the site.
The rappelling rescue team descended into the once-bustling border-crossing area from wooded mountain slopes, the state broadcaster China Central Television said.
“As far as I can see, it’s nothing but debris,” rescue official Zou Mingqi told state media. The area where travellers went through border control to enter or leave China has been flattened to a muddy area, according to satellite images.
