Nepal flood killed at least 157

A flash flood hit Nepal's Rasuwa district on Wednesday morning and left at least 157 people dead, Nepal Police said by late evening.

Authorities said a rock-and-ice landslide about 20 km northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing dumped debris into the Lhende River, a Bhotekoshi tributary. Water and mud tore through Timure and Syabrubesi, then into the Trishuli. Roads, bridges and hydropower works were damaged. Nepal's PMO said 19 motorable bridges and about 40 km of road were hit.

Hundreds remain missing. Tourism Board updates put hundreds of people out of contact, including large numbers of foreign tourists from India, the United States, Britain and other countries. China reported deaths and hundreds missing on the Tibet side near Gyirong Port. Nepali officials said there had been little rain on their side before the surge, while rainfall was recorded in Tibet. A magnitude 4.4 quake in Tibet minutes earlier is part of the early timeline officials are still checking.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah called the disaster sudden and massive. Cabinet declared affected local governments in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading as disaster-crisis areas for three months.

The Himalayas keep throwing the same warning: settlements and power projects sit in river corridors that can fail in minutes.

This flood crossed a busy trade and pilgrimage route. The death toll is still provisional. Missing foreign tourists make it a regional story, not only a Nepali one.

Search and rescue continue. Death counts will rise as bodies are recovered. Scientists want a clearer sequence of landslide, quake and river surge.