Red Cross estimates that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by disaster
\n Kathmandu
\nThe death toll in Nepal and Tibet from last week\u2019s catastrophic floods hit 750 on Sunday, with 3,044 missing, authorities said, while rescuers moved \u200bto higher ground as rain swelled river levels.
\nRescue operations have been suspended several times since Friday because of bad weather and \u200cconcerns that a lake formed across the Nepal-China border by a mudslide from Wednesday\u2019s glacier collapse could trigger fresh flooding after it began overflowing into rivers in Nepal.
\nThe Red Cross estimates that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the disaster, which China has linked to the effects of climate change.
\nChina\u2019s Foreign Minister Wang Yi \u200btold his Nepalese counterpart in a Saturday telephone call that the mudslide was their \u201cmost severe cross-border disaster\u201d in recent years and that rescue \u200boperations were of unprecedented difficulty and complexity, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.
\nTunnels become a focus of rescue efforts
\nNepal\u2019s rescue effort is now focused on hundreds of people believed to be trapped in tunnels at hydropower plants after a torrent of ice, rock, mud \u200band debris crashed down Himalayan rivers.
\nDeaths in Nepal have risen to 734, with 2,498 missing and 7,514 rescued, the nation\u2019s disaster authority said. In China, 16 \u200bpeople had died in Gyirong County as of Saturday evening, and 546 were missing, officials in Tibet told a press conference.
\nAmong the 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries missing on the Tibetan side were 104 from Nepal, 49 from neighbouring India, as well as 33 Latvians, 18 Americans and 15 Britons, they said in China\u2019s first breakdown by \u200bnationality.
\nBeijing and Kathmandu are working together to identify missing citizens and foreign nationals, as well as strengthening cooperation in disaster prevention and mitigation, and \u200bclimate-change response, CCTV said.
\nWater levels in the Trishuli River rose on Sunday after fresh rain, prompting residents and rescue workers to seek higher ground, Nepalese police told Reuters.
\nNepal says \u200cit does not need foreign help for general rescue, but Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri said the country needed assistance in such areas as tunnel rescue, DNA testing, refrigerated storage for bodies and forensic identification of decomposed remains.
\nIndian and Chinese experts are on the ground helping efforts to open tunnels, Chhetri said.
\nThe lake that had formed upstream and threatened rescue operations had largely drained by Saturday evening, CCTV said. But drones detected a landslide late on Saturday \u200b2.8 km (1.7 miles) downstream of the \u200blake, forming a new dam and a fresh pool of water, CCTV said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Red Cross estimates that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by disaster Kathmandu The death toll in Nepal and Tibet from last week\u2019s catastrophic floods hit 750 on Sunday, with 3,044 missing, authorities said, while rescuers moved \u200bto higher ground as rain swelled river levels. Rescue operations have been suspended several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n