Nepal flash floods disaster kill more than 500 as a lake poses a new threat

Rescuers pulled out survivors caked in dark brown mud and helicopters lifted stranded people to safety Friday as Nepal and China raced to respond to catastrophic flash floods that killed more than 500 people and left more than 1,500 missing.Nepal’s disaster management authority said the death toll there rose to 538, and that more than 3,700 people have been rescued.Nepali police later put the number of deaths higher at 547.Meanwhile there was little information on survivors on the Chinese side, where the death toll rose to five Friday as state media showed evacuations of villages and leaders’ efforts to direct the relief response.China’s state media previously said 558 people were missing.

Across the border, Nepal’s disaster management authority said Friday that 977 people were still unaccounted for. Hundreds of them were foreigners in the area to work, trek or make a pilgrimage to a sacred peak.Nepali police issued a fresh alert Friday after receiving information that a dam on the Tibet side has burst.Security personnel and rescue and relief workers were told to stay on high alert and immediately move to a safe location if necessary.It is unclear if the dam bursting is related to flooding concerns over a barrier lake that formed after the initial flash floods, high up in the Chinese side of the Himalayan mountains.

Chinese broadcaster CCTV said the lake was at an elevation of 9,680 feet.Nepali and Chinese authorities earlier warned of further flooding from the barrier lake, which was already overflowing.They urged people in potentially affected areas to move to safer ground.Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told The Associated Press that the rescue operation was continuing but with high alert.

“It hasn’t stopped,” he said.Although the new lake is located more than 6 miles from Gyirong Port, the hard-hit border crossing with Nepal, rescue workers heading to the disaster zone were ordered to stop temporarily Friday morning owing to c...