KATHMANDU - China and Nepal warned of fresh flooding risks, complicating rescuers' search on Friday for more than 1,400 people missing after a deadly deluge and landslides swept away entire villages along their remote Himalayan border.
Emergency teams have recovered at least 469 bodies after a devastating tsunami-like wall of freezing water and mud wiped out towns under a torrent of sludge, burying homes, smashing bridges and dams and sweeping away vehicles.
Many of the missing are foreign tourists, including trekkers in the Himalayan nation and scores of Hindu pilgrims to Tibet's sacred snow-capped Mount Kailash.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the disaster was caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a vast flow of icy debris.
Survivors in a makeshift Nepali hospital endured an agonising wait for news of their missing loved ones.
Indians make up the largest number of missing foreigners, while the United States said 90 of its citizens were out of contact.
Across the border in Tibet -- where the only sources of information are Chinese authorities -- officials say hundreds are missing and three have died.
Chinese authorities also said they had evacuated 555 stranded tourists -- as well as 499 local residents --from Tibet.
Authorities have mobilised nearly 800 emergency workers, as well as sniffer dogs, speed boats, satellites and drones to help the rescue efforts, the state-run Xinhua new agency said.
- 'Inland tsunami' -
Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah, who urged the nation to "stand together" hours after the disaster, toured some of the hardest-hit areas on Thursday.
Shah told local authorities to "provide immediate relief to displaced families" and to open blocked roads, his office said in a statement.
Other foreigners out of contact include citizens from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and South Korea, Nepal's tourism board said.
The sudden rush of mud and debris was "like an inland tsunami", travelling nearly 170 kilometres south into Nepal, said environmental historian Ruth Gamble, of Australia's La Trobe University.
Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, said he would "pray for all those who have lost their lives".
The USGS said a glacial collapse caused seismic activity and had "catastrophic" downstream impacts in Nepal and Tibet.
"This event was initially reported as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake," it said, but the seismic recordings were analysed and it was found instead to be a "glacial collapse and debris flow".
Scores of Hindu devotees from across the world are among the hundreds missing on the border, as many were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, on the Chinese side of the border.
- by Arunabh Saikia with Paavan Mathema in Kathmandu (AFP)