A glacier collapse high in the Himalayas on Wednesday triggered catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border.
More than 270 people have been confirmed dead and at least 1,300 remain missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region after a Himalayan glacier collapse sent a wall of water, mud and rock through border towns and valleys.
Rescue teams are searching for survivors in terrain that is hard to access at the best of times. At least 19 bridges and about 40km (25 miles) of road have been destroyed, further hampering the search.
Nepal Police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle said the death toll is expected to rise further.
Satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs before and after the flood shows how buildings and roads have been washed away.
The imagery also shows large parts of Syapru Besi village submerged in mud.
What happened?
At about 8:40am local time (02:55 GMT) on Wednesday, a large section of glacier broke away high above the Lhende river in Tibet. The falling ice and rock dammed the river and, shortly afterwards, when the blockage gave way, the surge tore through settlements in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, destroying homes, hydropower plants and border infrastructure.
The resulting ice and rock avalanche struck the river about 20km (12 miles) northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing.
Early reports attributed the collapse to a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. But the United States Geological Survey later said the seismic signal was caused by the landslide itself, not an earthquake. The landslide packed enough force to register as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event.
Some of the worst damage was in Rasuwa district, on Nepal’s northern border with China. The surge travelled down the Lhende Khola (river) into the Bhotekoshi and then the Trishuli river, which rose by as much as 9 metres (30 feet) in 30 minutes, according to Nepali officials.
Timure and Syapru Besi were among the settlements hit in Rasuwa. Further downstream, the flooding reached parts of Nuwakot and Dhading. Bodies have since been recovered much further south, in Gorkha, Tanahun, Chitwan and the two Nawalparasi districts.
In Tibet, mud and debris struck Gyirong Port in Shigatse.
The Trishuli eventually joins the Narayani, which flows into India’s Bihar state, where it is known as the Gandak.