Flooding in Nepal and Tibet: three Italians among the 1,500 missing. 359 bodies recovered

Initially, the flooding in the Rasuwa district of Nepal was attributed to an avalanche triggered by an earthquake that struck on Wednesday morning in Tibet. However, a subsequent analysis by the US Geological Survey (USGS) established that no earthquake had occurred prior to the break-off of a section of glacier on the border between Nepal and Tibet, which triggered the tragedy. ‘This event was initially reported as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake,’ reads the update on the USGS website, ‘but further analysis of long-period seismic waves indicates that the seismic energy was instead generated by a landslide.’

The Himalayan region is particularly prone to heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides because it is warming more rapidly than the rest of the world as a result of climate change. Research shows that in this part of the world, extreme weather events – including heatwaves and exceptional rainfall, as well as glacier melt – have become more frequent.

Le acque alluvionali travolgono Trishuli Bazar in seguito a un'inondazione improvvisa, nel distretto di Nuwakot, in Nepal, il 26 agosto 2026. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA

Footage broadcast on TV channels showed collapsed houses being swept away by the floodwaters, cars adrift and a massive metal structure on the Trishuli River swept away by the flood. According to some witnesses, entire villages were reportedly submerged by the floodwaters. Others claim to have seen the current sweep away ‘eight or nine lorries, along with houses and people’.

“There is devastation wherever we look,” explains Tula Bahadur BK, a healthcare worker from Rasuwa. “The settlements near the river have been completely swept away. Five of my relatives are missing.” According to the Nepalese army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet, rescue helicopters will not be able to land in the affected areas until the waters recede.

Chinese President Xi Jinping – who, in recognition of the gravity of the situation, has sent Premier Li Qiang to the scene of the disaster – has called for every possible effort to be made to search for and rescue those missing, to evacuate and rehouse residents threatened by the disaster, and to speed up treatment for the injured, with the aim of minimising the number of casualties. He also ordered that monitoring and early warning systems be strengthened, that rescue operations be carried out in accordance with scientific principles, and that the occurrence of secondary disasters be prevented.

On Thursday, the first pledges of aid arrived for Nepal, a country that ranks 45th out of 50 in Asia in terms of per capita income. The United Kingdom has allocated £5 million in aid; the United States, with an economy eight times larger than the UK’s, has pledged $500,000 – less than a thirteenth of that amount.

“We were stuck on the bus for eight hours. No one had any news until the first reports and videos began to circulate.” This is the account given on Tg1 by Giovanni Fassini and Marco Lombardi, two Italians who were stranded on a bus heading for Kathmandu airport whilst floods were sweeping through Nepal.

The two were coming to the end of their holiday and were due to catch a flight to Milan. “The bus stopped because the road was blocked, and at first we didn’t understand why. Eventually, we realised that the river beside us was rising, rising and rising. Fortunately, it didn’t reach our vehicle”, they said.