On the 29th, the fourth day since large-scale flooding struck the Himalayan mountain area on the Nepal-China border, the death toll in the two countries rose to 682, local time.
According to AP and AFP, Nepal's disaster authorities said that as of the day, 675 people had died in the large-scale flooding that occurred on the 26th in and around Bagmati Province in central Nepal.
On the same day, in Gyirong County, Rikaze City, Tibet Autonomous Region in China, which borders Nepal, the death toll from debris flows linked to the flooding rose from 5 to 7. As a result, the total number of deaths in Nepal and China was counted at 682.
Until the previous day, the two countries' death toll stood at 579, but as bodies were recovered one after another in and around Bagmati Province that day, the number increased by more than 100 in a single day.
The number of missing also surged. Nepal's missing rose by about 500, from 1,924 to 2,426. Adding 554 missing in China's Tibet region brings the total missing in the two countries to 2,980. Among them, more than 500 are reportedly foreigners.
Nine South Koreans, including six Doosan Enerbility employees and three Korea South-East Power (KOEN) employees who were working at the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydropower plant construction site in Nepal, also remain out of contact.
The South Korean government also deployed helicopters that day to search for the missing. The government joint rapid response team, together with Doosan Enerbility and Korea South-East Power (KOEN), secured six helicopters in the capital, Kathmandu.
However, the local search has been slow due to flight controls by Nepalese authorities and bad weather. As Nepalese authorities restricted helicopter flights over concerns about a potential second flood, only one helicopter chartered by Korea South-East Power (KOEN) searched the affected area the previous day. On the day as well, local response teams from Doosan Enerbility and Korea South-East Power (KOEN) were unable to launch their chartered helicopters due to bad weather and flight permission issues.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it plans to dispatch an additional government joint rapid response team to Nepal, consisting of one Foreign Ministry official and eight from the National Fire Agency. Earlier, on the 27th, the government sent an 11-member rapid response team to Nepal, led by Head of Team Lim Sang-woo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' government representative in charge of protection of overseas Koreans and consular affairs. The additional nine personnel to be dispatched plan to join the existing team in searching for and rescuing the missing.
Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won also arrived in Nepal that day to directly support search and rescue operations at the accident site where six Doosan Enerbility employees went missing.
The feared risk of a second flood has eased somewhat. China Central Television (CCTV) reported that the water level of a natural dam lake formed upstream of the Gyirong customs port in Gyirong County, Tibet Autonomous Region, had fallen by about 10 meters from the previous day's peak. However, an official at Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority warned that the risk of a second flood would persist until the lake is completely drained.
The massive flood is suspected to have been triggered by the collapse of large glaciers and rocks in the Himalayas. Analysis indicated that as a glacier up to 600 meters wide collapsed along with rocks at the 5,200-meter point on Langtang Lirung, which rises to 7,234 meters above sea level, a powerful shock comparable to a magnitude 5.2 earthquake occurred.
It is estimated that the glacier and debris flows swept downstream from the Lende River along the Trishuli River, causing the major flooding.