Search for 1,300 missing after deadly Nepal-Tibet floods

Rescue teams scoured devastated zones Thursday for more than 1,300 people missing a day after flash floods and landslides along the Nepal-Tibet border killed at least 180, sweeping away entire villages.

Homes were engulfed and vehicles tossed around like they were toys by the tsunami-like rumble of water and mud that struck villages and towns on Wednesday morning on the path of two rivers -- Bhote Koshi and Trishuli.

Many of the missing are foreign tourists caught in the disaster that the US Geological Survey believe was caused by a glacial collapse that sent forth a overwhelming flow of icy debris.

Emergency teams were racing to evacuate survivors from affected zones, as new flash floods could not be ruled out.

Nepali police said they had recovered 177 bodies, but another 823 people, including 517 foreign tourists, were out of contact in the country.

In China, state media said the "mudslide disaster" at the Gyirong Port in Tibet killed three people, while 558 people, including 260 foreigners, are missing.

Among those hunting for their family members was Chitra Bahadur Nepali, whose nephew Yubraj Sewak had been travelling towards the worst-affected Rasuwa district before contact was lost.

"My nephew was on his way to Rasuwa and was in contact with my sister until about 8:00 am yesterday," Nepali, 52, said, showing his photograph on his phone.

"We have not heard from him since the flood. His name is not on any of the lists we have seen, and another member of our family is also missing."

Rescuers waded through mud and sludge to look for survivors after floodwaters buried the lower floors of multi-storey buildings.

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah, who urged the Himalyan nation to "stand together" hours after the disaster, left on Thursday morning by road to witness some of the hardest hit areas himself.

The foreigners out of contact included Indians, and others from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea and the United States, Nepal's tourism board said.

The sudden rush of mud and debris was "like an inland tsunami", travelling nearly 170 kilometres (100 miles) south into Nepal, said environmental historian Ruth Gamble, of Australia's La Trobe University.

Rasuwa, in the north of Nepal, was the first district to be affected. But deaths have been reported from seven Nepali districts in total as the flood waters raged through to Chitwan in the south, on the border with India.

Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, in exile in India, said he would "pray for all those who have lost their lives".

China government officials in Tibet mobilised nearly 800 emergency workers, as well as sniffer dogs and speed boats to help the rescue efforts, state-run news agency Xinhua said.

Promises of aid and assistance came in soon after reports of the scale of the disaster.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said it was dispatching emergency supplies including blankets, first aid kits, stretchers and body bags.

The US Geological Survey said the flood was sparked by a glacial collapse, that caused seismic activity and the "catastrophic" downstream impacts in Nepal and Tibet.

"This event was initially reported as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake," it said, but added that the seismic recordings were analysed and found instead to be a "glacial collapse and debris flow".

Climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risks of glacial lake floods and glacial collapses.

Fears of potential further floods remain, with water trapped by the immense piles of debris blocking the valley.

"With a blockage still lodged upstream on the Nepal-China border river, authorities warn a second flood may occur," said Qianggong Zhang, head of climate and environmental risks at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

A Nepali government technical government report on Thursday warned that the "possibility of additional water flow... cannot be ruled out immediately."

Li Qipu, a member of China's paramilitary People's Armed Police, also cited "the instability of a reservoir lake upstream" and "the narrow mountain road" as elements complicating rescue efforts.

Scores of Hindu devotees from across the world are among the hundreds missing on the border, popular Indian spiritual leader Sadhguru said Thursday.

They had been returning from a holy pilgrimage to Tibet's snowcapped Mount Kailash, on the Chinese side of the frontier, when they were caught in the floods at the immigration post.

"Literally, the entire group was there in the building," Sadhguru said in a video message to his millions of followers, weeping as he spoke from Tibet, speaking over the anguished wails from other pilgrims.

"This is a terrible and extraordinary event."