Nepal flash flood death toll rises to 1,127; rescuers race to reach thousands missing

03/09/2026

KATHMANDU, Sep 2: The death toll from Nepal's devastating flash floods rose to 1,127 on Wednesday as rescuers are racing to find thousands still missing a week after the Himalayan disaster, police said.
According to the Nepal Police, 348 more dead bodies were recovered from Chitwan, 217 from Nawalparasi East, 190 from Nawalparasi West and 155 from Nuwakot.
Similarly, 66 bodies were recovered from Gorkha, 59 from Dhading, 45 from Rasuwa, and 38 from Tanahu.
Police said postmortem and legal identification procedures had been completed for 1,113 bodies, while 95 had been handed over to relatives.
Details of 911 unidentified bodies have been uploaded to the Nepal Police website to help families identify missing relatives.
So far, security forces have rescued 6,541 people from the affected areas while search operations continued for 4,858 missing people, the police said.
Authorities have deployed 7,912 police personnel to flood-hit areas for search and rescue operations, relief distribution and the management of recovered bodies.
Police teams are also moving families from high-risk areas to safer locations, clearing roads blocked by debris and coordinating search, rescue and relief operations with local authorities and residents.
Flash floods, triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal on August 26. Meanwhile, continuous rain in Nepal is disrupting search and rescue operations in Rasuwa and Nuwakot.
Also, there is a possibility of moderate rain in the Bhotekoshi flood-affected areas on Wednesday afternoon, according to meteorologist Rojan Lamichhane at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.
Lamichhane also said that the nearby areas affected by the Bhotekoshi flood, including Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading, may experience moderate rain in the afternoon.
According to the department, in the past 12 hours, the highest rainfall was recorded at the weather station in Nosyam Pati, Sindhupalchok, measuring 60.2 millimeters.
Moderate rainfall has occurred in many areas of Bagmati, Gandaki, and Lumbini provinces, while some areas of Koshi, Karnali, and Sudurpaschim provinces have experienced light to moderate rainfall. The department has stated that the weather will generally be cloudy across the country this afternoon.
There is a possibility of heavy rain at a few places in the mountainous regions of Koshi, Bagmati, and Gandaki provinces tonight, authorities said.
Executive Chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), Dharma Raj Uprety, said that the water filling up in the tunnel due to rain has caused additional challenges in the search and rescue operations in the areas affected by the Bhotekoshi flood.
According to Uprety, due to the overnight rain, water filled the hydropower tunnel.
Search and rescue operations have been hampered by the difficult conditions inside the project tunnels.
Teams involving the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force, foreign technical experts and project employees have been conducting search and rescue operations, but they have yet to locate the missing workers.
Former president of the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN), Ganesh Karki, has said rescue efforts have also been slowed because equipment cannot easily be transported to the tunnels.
He said locating the entrances to the tunnels has itself become difficult.
“The material carried by the river has reached over the tunnels,” Karki said. “It has become difficult even to determine the exact location of the tunnel entrances.”

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