HS in China | Rescue worker tells HS about Himalayan flood devastation: mud burial site is meters deep and weather is appalling

Nearly 1,300 people have died and about 5,000 remain missing after devastating floods in the Himalayas. In China’s Tibet region, the search has been slowed by mud several meters deep, which has buried people and vehicles beneath the surface.

Chinese rescue worker Wei Tongsu described the conditions in the disaster zone to Helsingin Sanomat after taking part in rescue operations. The scale of the destruction has made both the search for victims and the effort to establish the death toll difficult.

The floods were followed by mudslides and left the worst-hit areas covered in mud and boulders, some reportedly as large as cars. Rescuers have been working in severe weather in the Gyirong border area on the Chinese side of Tibet.

There was a rare piece of good news on Friday. Rescuers brought two workers to the surface from inside a hydropower plant tunnel near the Nepal-China border. They had been trapped for nine days after the flash flood and the mudslide that followed. One of the survivors was transferred to intensive care.