Mudslide From Nepal Strikes Gyirong Border Crossing as Overflowing Dammed Lake Raises Flood Risk

Overview

• A massive mudslide that originated on the Nepal side struck the Gyirong (吉隆) border crossing on Wednesday, cutting roads, burying parts of the port and triggering a large search-and-rescue operation.
• Official tallies have shifted as searches expand and checks continue, with the latest reports citing 16 dead and 546 missing and authorities identifying about 261 missing foreign nationals.
• More than 2,100 rescuers from the PLA, armed police, China Fire and Rescue, border troops, local police and private logistics have been deployed, with about 269 vehicles and 3,922 pieces of equipment committed to search-and-rescue tasks.
• Rescue work is constrained by secondary hazards after the slide: an upstream dammed lake has begun to overflow, prompting suspension of some road-repair efforts and activation of satellite emergency sensing to monitor slopes and downstream flood risk.
• Emergency communications and logistics have been bolstered to support operations, with China Unicom opening a border emergency base station on Aug. 30, Tibet telecoms repairing one and adding nine base stations toward core sites, and large stocks of food, tents and bedding staged near the affected towns.