Hundreds of people remain missing after catastrophic flooding and mudslides devastated one of the most important border crossings between Nepal and China, sweeping away buildings, vehicles and the bridge connecting the two countries.
The disaster struck the Gyirong-Rasuwagadhi border area on August 26, when a massive torrent of water, mud, ice, rocks and boulders surged through the narrow Himalayan valley. Satellite images taken after the disaster show that much of the border complex was destroyed.
On the Nepalese side, the Friendship Bridge connecting Nepal with Tibet was swept away, along with immigration and customs facilities. The nearby trading settlement of Timure was also devastated.
The scale of the potential loss of life remains unclear.
More than 100 Indian nationals may have been around the crossing when the disaster occurred, while India’s foreign ministry says at least 275 Indians remain missing in Nepal.
Electronic immigration records show 89 Nepalese and foreign travellers had been cleared to leave Nepal for Tibet that morning, while four people had registered their arrival into Nepal.
Among those recorded leaving were 32 Indians, 12 Chinese nationals and nine Americans, alongside travellers from Britain, Canada, Australia and Italy.
However, officials believe the electronic records provide only a partial picture of how many people were in the area.
Senior immigration assistant Tika Ram Pokharel, the only known survivor among staff at the Rasuwagadhi immigration office, said he was told that between 300 and 400 people were waiting to travel from Nepal into Tibet shortly before the disaster. Pokharel survived because he had travelled to Kathmandu to sit an examination.
Four of his colleagues went missing. The body of the head of the immigration office was subsequently recovered downstream, while a female official responsible for recording the final immigration transactions remains missing.
Glacier collapse believed to have triggered disaster
Researchers believe the disaster began when part of a glacier collapsed in the mountains above the border.
At 8:37am Nepal time, seismic instruments detected movement in the mountains. Researchers later attributed the signal to the glacier collapse that triggered the flood.
Chinese authorities said the resulting mudslide travelled from its origin to the border crossing in approximately seven minutes, leaving people in its path with little opportunity to escape.
CCTV footage from Gyirong shows what initially resembles a dark wall emerging behind buildings before rapidly developing into a violent torrent of water, mud and debris.
The Nepalese immigration system had recorded its final transaction less than 10 minutes before the torrent appeared on CCTV on the Chinese side.
The location of many travellers at the precise moment of impact remains unknown because people who had completed Nepalese immigration still had to walk towards the bridge, wait for other members of their groups or complete formalities on the Chinese side.
Pilgrims among those unaccounted for
Among the missing are pilgrims travelling through the Himalayan crossing.
One Indian woman sent her husband a photograph showing that she had completed Nepalese immigration at 07:57. Six minutes later she messaged him: “We are waiting to enter China.” No further messages arrived.
A separate group of 77 pilgrims associated with the Isha Foundation, together with three staff members, was also unaccounted for after the flood struck the Chinese immigration area.
Pokharel believes the overall number of people caught in the disaster could be substantially higher than official figures currently indicate. He estimated that between 2,000 and 2,500 people may have been in the flood’s path, although that figure has not been independently verified.
Chinese rescuers who reached Gyirong two days after the disaster described extraordinary destruction, with one telling state media that there was “nothing but ruins” as far as they could see.
Major trade route destroyed
The disaster has also severed one of Nepal’s most important economic connections with China.
Rasuwagadhi is one of Nepal’s two principal trading points with its northern neighbour and handles roughly a third of the countries’ $2.95 billion bilateral trade, according to a Kathmandu-based trade expert.
Around 60 to 70 trucks normally travel through the gorge every day carrying electronics, machinery, vehicles, clothing, fruit and other products. The route also handles an estimated 80% of Nepal’s electric-vehicle imports from China.
The crossing had only recently recovered from another major flood in July 2025 that forced it to close for nearly six months.
With search and rescue operations continuing, families are now waiting for information about those still missing while authorities attempt to determine how many people were actually at the border when the flood swept through the valley.
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