Breaking · Safety & Advisories
The Bhote Koshi flood has killed 1,410 people in Nepal, and the toll is still rising
Nepal has confirmed 1,410 dead and 6,145 still missing from the 26 August Bhote Koshi flood. Dated figures, and why the numbers you see elsewhere disagree.
At a glance
- Published · updated
- TopicSafety & Advisories
- Verified againstNDRRMA; Al Jazeera; CNN; The Tribune; ICIMOD
- Treks coveredGosaikunda Lake Trek — 9 Days, Langtang & Gosaikunda Trek — 13 Days, Langtang Valley Trek — 7 Days
Figures as of 17 September 2026
Nepal’s disaster authority reports 1,410 dead and 6,145 still missing as of 19:00 on 17 September, including 587 foreign nationals, and 13,756 people rescued. It says the missing list was revised after 110 bodies were identified. On 12 September, across the border in Tibet, 43 are dead and 519 missing, among them 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries. More than 5,300 are injured, 13,391 have been rescued, and 3,912 are living in holding centres in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading.
1,252 bodies have been recovered — fewer than the confirmed dead, because a death can be confirmed before remains are reached. Around 600 children and roughly 900 Nepali hydropower workers are still unaccounted for.
1.6 million people are recorded as affected (NDRRMA, 2 September). Damage stood at Rs 387.54 billion, about US$2.57 billion, on 4 September; the Finance Minister has put rebuilding at Rs 762 billion, roughly US$5 billion.
What actually caused it
Not rainfall. At about 08:40 on 26 August, in clear weather, a section of glacier collapsed at roughly 5,200 metres and fell some 1,200 metres into the Lhende River. The debris dammed the river, and that natural dam then burst. It is why there was no warning to give — nothing in the sky forecast it (USGS; Nepali disaster authority).
How the count moved
27 August — 389 dead, hundreds missing (Al Jazeera)
29 August — 675 dead, 2,498 missing (CNN)
31 August — 903 dead, 4,247 missing (NDRRMA)
1 September — 1,003 dead, 3,916 missing (NDRRMA via Al Jazeera)
3 September — 1,259 bodies recovered, 5,083 missing
4 September — 1,294 dead in Nepal, 31 in Tibet; 5,053 missing
5 September — 1,342 dead, 4,886 missing
6 September — about 4,996 missing (evening bulletin)
17 September — 1,410 dead, 6,145 missing, 587 foreign nationals (NDRRMA, 19:00)
The toll roughly doubled in nine days. Any single figure is a photograph of one moment, including this one.
Why the numbers you see elsewhere disagree
Mostly they are not contradicting each other. Four things explain nearly all of it.
1. Snapshot dates. The toll went from 389 to 1,342 in nine days. Two accurate articles written a week apart look like they disagree, and most do not date their figures prominently.
2. Missing falls as dead rises. 5,083 missing on 3 September became 4,886 on 5 September, because bodies get identified and survivors get found. A falling missing count can look like a quiet revision downward. It is the opposite. But it is a trend, not a rule, and it has already reversed here once: the figure went back up to 4,996 on 6 September, because comms returning to cut-off districts adds names faster than bodies get identified.
3. Nepal only, or Nepal plus Tibet. The figures 1,294 and 1,325 come from the same bulletin — one folds in the Tibetan side.
4. Affected is not one definition. NDRRMA records 1.6 million affected; the IFRC puts 93,000 impacted. They count different things — everyone in a struck district, versus the population being targeted for assistance. Seeing both without explanation is the commonest reason people conclude someone is lying. Nobody is.
Key facts — as reported 26 August 2026 (all figures provisional)
Planning a trek this autumn? We keep a live region-by-region status page — which trails are open, which access roads are cut, and what we would book right now. It is updated through the season by our team in Pokhara: Nepal trekking conditions right now.
- Event: A flash flood surged out of Tibet down the Bhote Koshi River on the morning of 26 August 2026 (one report puts it at around 09:00 local).
- Rivers: Bhote Koshi and its tributary the Lhende Khola, then downstream via the Trishuli River.
- Districts hit: Rasuwa (Timure, Syabrubesi), then Nuwakot and Dhading downstream.
- Deaths in Nepal: At least 392 people are confirmed dead (389 in Nepal, 3 in China) and more than 1,468 remain missing, including 668 tourists from 34 countries. Figures are provisional and have risen every day since 26 August.
- Missing / being verified: a preliminary 384 people were listed as missing in Nepal; authorities then worked to account for them, and many were progressively confirmed safe.
- Power damage: around 430 MW of generating capacity hit, the Nepal Electricity Authority said, across six hydropower facilities.
A sudden, violent flash flood tore down the Bhote Koshi River from Tibet into Nepal's northern border district of Rasuwa on the morning of 26 August 2026, sweeping away villages, roads, bridges and hydropower plants along the frontier and downstream. Bagmati Pradesh Police said at least 95 people were confirmed dead in Nepal as the toll climbed through the day, while hundreds more were initially reported missing and were still being accounted for as this article was published.
The disaster struck one of the most sensitive points on Nepal's map: the Rasuwagadhi border crossing with Tibet, the gateway to the Langtang trekking region, and a corridor of hydropower projects that feed Nepal's national grid. Figures were rising and being revised through the day; the numbers below are as reported on 26 August and attributed to the authorities who released them.
What happened, and when
According to reports, the surge originated roughly 25 kilometres inside Tibet and came down the Bhote Koshi at around 09:00 local time, with the maximum flooding channelled through the Lhende Khola, a Bhote Koshi tributary. The water hit the border zone around Rasuwagadhi on the Nepali side and Gyirong (Kerung) Port on the Tibetan side, damaging the "Miteri" Friendship bridge that carries Nepal's main overland trade with Tibet.
From the border the flood ran through the Rasuwa settlements of Timure and Syabrubesi, then continued downstream into Nuwakot and Dhading via the Trishuli River, with damage reported at Betrawati, Trishuli (Bidur), Dhunge, Devighat and Dhunche. The Bhote Koshi feeds the Trishuli, which ultimately joins the Ganges — so the water's path traced a line from a glacier basin on the Tibet frontier down into the populated middle hills.
The human toll
Nepal Police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle, speaking for the Bagmati Pradesh Police, said at least 95 people were confirmed dead. Earlier tallies through the morning had been far lower — reports cited 8, then 31, then 72 — because the toll rose steadily as rescue teams reached cut-off communities.
The number of missing was harder to pin down. The Nepal Tourism Board's preliminary count put 384 people unaccounted for — 291 foreign nationals and 93 Nepali nationals — with those listed including citizens of India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia. India accounted for the largest group, with reports of around 105 Indian nationals plus 37 overseas Indians (NRIs). South Korea said eight of its citizens, hydropower workers, were missing and ten more were stranded. Nine Armed Police Force personnel stationed at the Timure border outpost were also reported missing.
Important — "missing" did not mean "dead"
The figure of 384 missing was a preliminary count. Authorities then worked to verify the whereabouts of those 384 travellers, and many people initially listed as missing were progressively accounted for and confirmed safe. The Wikipedia record of the event describes the figures as preliminary and "changing quickly." So while the confirmed death toll is a hard number, the far larger "missing" figure was a snapshot of people not yet located — not a count of the dead.
Across the border, in Tibet
The flood also caused what Chinese authorities described as "major casualties" at Gyirong Port on the Tibetan side. Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported three people dead and 265 missing across the border. As on the Nepali side, those were the figures released on 26 August and were subject to revision.
Power and infrastructure
The Bhote Koshi–Trishuli corridor is one of Nepal's most important hydropower valleys, and the flood cut straight through it. The Nepal Electricity Authority said around 430 MW of production, transmission and distribution capacity was damaged, naming six facilities.
| Facility | Note |
|---|---|
| Rasuwagadhi | On the Bhote Koshi near the Tibet border |
| Chilime | Rasuwa district, upper Trishuli system |
| Trishuli 3A | Trishuli River |
| Trishuli 3B Hub | A 220 kV substation |
| Trishuli Hydropower Station | On the Trishuli River |
| Devighat | Downstream, Nuwakot district |
| Total capacity affected | ~430 MW (NEA) |
Roads, bridges — including the Rasuwagadhi border bridge — markets and riverside communities were destroyed or damaged along the same stretch.
The response
Nepal mobilised the Nepal Army, the Armed Police Force and Nepal Police, with helicopters and medical teams, to reach cut-off villages along the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) convened emergency coordination, and the Nepal Red Cross activated emergency response teams and deployed relief.
The disaster's cross-border reach drew an international response. South Korea set up a task force over its missing citizens. In China, President Xi Jinping called for continued efforts to locate the missing and for improved disaster monitoring and early-warning systems.
Instruments log a shock on the frontier. The glacier-collapse explanations below hold that this was the failure itself — a mass of ice some 610 m wide falling roughly 1,200 m from an elevation of 5,200–5,400 m — rather than a quake that triggered one.
A border security camera, its frame stamped 10:59:53 China time, catches the debris arriving about 14 km downstream: an estimated 100–200 million cubic metres travelling at roughly 50 m/s. Seven minutes, start to impact.
At Bidur in Nuwakot, Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School is called from Betrawati upstream, rings its bell and evacuates about 900 pupils; school buses are turned back. The campus is destroyed minutes later. No siren was involved anywhere on this river.
The flow was traceable 80 km below the collapse, which is why the damage runs from the border bridge through Rasuwa and on into Nuwakot and Dhading.
A cause still in dispute
Crucially, authorities have not yet established a cause for the floods, and experts have put forward three competing explanations. Nepal's Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal said an earthquake triggered an avalanche or landslide that blocked the Bhote Koshi; the US Geological Survey recorded a seismic signal first issued as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake in Tibet — later reclassified by the USGS as a magnitude 5.2 landslide, the collapse itself rather than a quake — and roughly seven minutes separated that signal from a border security-camera timestamp of the surge. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) offered two glacier-related explanations instead — a rock-ice avalanche off a glacier on the Nepal side that dammed and then released the Lhende Khola, and, from satellite analysis, the sudden drainage of a supraglacial lake north of Nepal's Langtang Himal. We examine the evidence for each in a separate report: what really caused the Bhote Koshi flood — earthquake, avalanche or a bursting glacial lake.
What this means if you are travelling in Nepal
For trekkers, the geography matters. Syabrubesi is the road-head where essentially every Langtang Valley trek begins, reached along the Pasang Lhamu Highway from Kathmandu, and Timure sits on the Rasuwagadhi border road. In other words, the flood struck the gateway to Langtang and the Kathmandu–Kerung overland route to Tibet, with the overland Mt Kailash route via Kerung reported closed.
The damage reported so far is in the Bhote Koshi and Lhende corridor around Syabrubesi and Timure and downstream — the condition of the trail up the Langtang valley itself has not been established and is being assessed. This is late monsoon; Langtang's main trekking season is October–November, still several weeks off, which is relevant for repair and recovery, though road and bridge access via Syabrubesi may be disrupted in the meantime. If you have a trip planned in the region, check directly with your operator and the authorities before travelling. Our companion guide sets out the practical picture: Rasuwa flood and your Langtang trek — what to check before you go.
This is also not the first time this river has flooded. The Bhote Koshi and Lhende flooded in July 2025 as well — an event attributed to the drainage of a supraglacial lake in Tibet — meaning this stretch has now flooded twice in around 14 months. ICIMOD's Saswata Sanyal has said such events are increasing at an "unprecedented" pace in the Hindu Kush Himalaya, a pattern we cover in our reporting on climate change in the Himalaya.
Travelling to the Langtang region
Plan around the recovery, not against it
The Rasuwa and Langtang region will need time to repair roads, bridges and trails. When access is restored, trekking here directly supports the local economy's recovery. If you are considering the region for the autumn season or beyond, talk to us first — we will give you an honest read on conditions before you commit.
Sources and further reading: CNN live coverage · Al Jazeera · NPR · CBS News · Euronews · Wikipedia: 2026 Nepal floods · ICIMOD · Nepal Army · USGS earthquakes. Figures are provisional and were attributed to the sources named above as reported on 26 August 2026.
Cover photo: Anil Simkhada via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Section photos: Sharif Ahmed via Pexels (Pexels licence); Prabin Sunar via Pexels (Pexels licence); Jimmy Cheng via Pexels (Pexels licence); Quang Nguyen Vinh via Pexels (Pexels licence); Sagar Gnawali via Pexels (Pexels licence).
If you want to help. Nepal’s official relief channel is the government’s Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund — restricted by law to rescue, relief and rehabilitation, audited annually, and it takes international cards directly. We collect nothing and receive nothing. Be careful of account numbers circulating in forwarded messages: disaster fundraising draws scams within days. Our full guide, including two vetted alternatives, is at where to donate for the Nepal floods and how to help.
Earlier snapshot, kept to show how the count moved — as reported on 31 August 2026, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority put the toll at 903 confirmed dead, 4,247 missing and 10,451 rescued, with 592 foreign nationals among the missing. Bodies recovered by district: Chitwan 272, Nawalparasi East 207, Nawalparasi West 151, Nuwakot 95, Gorkha 62, Dhading 55, Tanahun 37, Rasuwa 24. Earlier figures in this article are left as they were reported at the time.
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