New Nepal flood warnings as 1,400 tourists and locals confirmed missing | BBC News

There are fears of more flash floods in Nepal, as rescuers scramble through villages engulfed in rock and mud in a desperate search for survivors of the flash floods that have left at least 1,400 missing and hundreds dead. It is feared that the final death toll may be much higher.

Survivors have been giving harrowing accounts of how their entire families were wiped away in the catastrophe.

Hundreds of foreign nationals are desperately waiting to hear from loved ones thought to be caught in the disaster. Nepalese authorities say at least 380 people are confirmed to have died.

The region is popular with trekkers from around the world and is a pilgrimage site for Hindus and Buddhists, visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims each year.

Travellers from at least 28 countries, are among those missing following the catastrophe. The Nepalese authorities says among those missing are citizens of India, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Japan, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Belgium, Finland, ​France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, South Africa and Israel.

Tens of thousands of tourists make their way through Nepal annually. The disaster struck at the time of the year when people, especially Indian tourists, visit the area.

State media in China, which controls Tibet, reported three dead and at least 558 missing there. Among these are 260 foreign nationals. It is not clear if these figures overlap with the numbers provided by Nepal.

It appears that collapse of mountain glaciers triggered the disaster and there are fears of an imminent risk of further flash flooding without warning. Climate change is known to be driving faster glacier melt in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, but scientists say it is too soon to pinpoint its role in this specific event.

Jane Hill presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Azadeh Moshiri, Laura Bicker and Justin Rowlatt.

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