This article is from: srnnews.com

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescuers pulled out survivors caked in dark brown mud and helicopters lifted stranded people to safety Friday, as Nepal and China raced to respond to catastrophic flash floods that killed more than 500 people and left more than 1,500 missing.

Rescue teams were put on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that has formed high up on the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods on Wednesday. Experts warn that the lake, formed after the glacier collapse that triggered the floods, was starting to overflow.

Nepal’s army was deployed to help rescue more than 100 people believed trapped inside a tunnel at a hydropower plant located in the country’s worst-hit district. Like elsewhere in the disaster zone, their work was complicated by thick layers of mud that covered the site.

The floods have killed 538 in Nepal, the country’s disaster management authority said Friday. Nepali police later put the number of deaths higher at 547. There was little information on survivors on the Chinese side, where the death toll rose to five Friday as state media showed evacuations of villages and leaders’ efforts to direct the relief response.More than 3,700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far, but 977 people remain unaccounted for in the country. China’s state media previously said 558 people were missing on the Chinese side. Hundreds of the missing are foreigners in the area to work, trek or make a pilgrimage to a sacred peak.

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