Rescue teams and military helicopters searched Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-China border, where a torrent of water and mud several stories high swept through communities a day earlier following a glacier collapse.

More than 360 people have been killed, police said, and more than 1,400 are missing, including scores of foreigners and pilgrims. Hundreds of others have been displaced across the Himalayan region. Videos of the disaster showed people running before the floodwaters swallowed them up and washed out buildings and bridges.

The steep slopes and lush valleys below the Himalayan mountain range — home to many of the world's highest peaks and its remaining glaciers — are especially vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Melting glaciers have become more common because of human-caused climate change. The region is sometimes called the "Third Pole" because its ice reserves are the largest outside the Arctic and Antarctica.

Scenes of Devastation

Images showed what appeared to be the second floors of buildings in Nepal's hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud after the torrent rushed by. Riverbanks and village streets were covered in mud, debris hung from tree branches and wires, vehicles were buried, and some stunned survivors were left caked in mud.

Before-and-after images aired by state broadcaster China Central Television showed a multistory building and more than a dozen vehicles covered in mud in Tibet. A two-lane road running along a river in a valley in Tibet's Shigatse prefecture was completely buried. Aerial footage also showed that a lake had formed and was expanding on the China-Nepal border.

Nirajan Paudyal, a journalist based in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, worried for his parents and other relatives in the district's village of Soley. "I fear there won't be any update," Paudyal said.

The disaster has left at least 910 people missing in Nepal. Authorities in Tibet, an autonomous region of China, reported at least three dead and 558 missing.

Nepalese officials said dozens of bridges were destroyed and nearly 40 kilometers (25 miles) of roads were damaged, complicating search efforts. The Nepalese army has rescued more than 100 people by helicopter, army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet said, adding that army teams also evacuated people trapped inside facilities linked to the Trishuli hydropower project. Dozens of injured people were transported to Kathmandu for medical care, and rescuers found bodies in Chitwan district, hundreds of kilometers (miles) downstream from the hardest-hit areas.

Bishal Kumar Bhandari, chairman of the Nepal Red Cross Society, said the agency has shifted its focus from rescue to large-scale relief operations in the flood-hit districts. Around 1,200 people have been displaced from at least three villages, he said.

Mudslide at the Gyirong Crossing

In Tibet, a gushing mudslide struck Wednesday near the land border crossing of Gyirong Port, engulfing a multistory port building and leaving mud in the surrounding areas that was more than 1½ meters (5 feet) deep on average, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. Roads leading to the crossing were all damaged, while secondary collapses or landslides might occur as rain continued in the area, it added.

China's premier, Li Qiang, arrived Thursday in Gyirong to direct rescue efforts, alongside 500 military and paramilitary personnel. Military helicopters circled overhead, searching for survivors, assessing the disaster and mapping out possible rescue and evacuation routes. Chinese authorities also warned that the newly formed lake at the confluence of the Tsogyal and the Purupqiangzangbu rivers is overflowing and may burst.

U.N. Releases Emergency Funds

The United Nations' humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, announced Thursday on X that he had ordered the release of $2 million from the U.N.'s Central Emergency Response Fund to help with medical care, shelter and water. He called the floods "horrifying."

"We pledge to support national efforts to deliver emergency aid and support," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters.

Foreigners and Pilgrims Among the Missing

Among the missing are 517 foreigners, according to Nepal's tourism board. They include 178 people from India, more than 60 from the U.S., and people from 30 other countries, including Ukraine, the U.K., South Africa and Japan, the board said.

Many of the missing may have been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists and others. Seventy-seven people from one pilgrimage group were caught in the floods at the immigration office at the border, according to a post on X from Indian spiritual guru Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. A visibly emotional Sadhguru said in a video that the group included 22 Americans and others from various countries, and that there was no official information on their whereabouts.

The U.S. State Department said 90 Americans are unaccounted for in China and Nepal after the flood. The department said it was unaware of any U.S. deaths and that three Americans had been rescued.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday that 288 of the country's people, including some workers on a power project, were missing. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said nearly 100 Chinese citizens were missing in Nepal, and that, according to preliminary information, 260 of those missing in Tibet were foreigners.

Families Wait for Word

Many people in the disaster zone waited to hear whether their loved ones were alive. Shova Shrestha, 33, has spent more than a day seeking word of her husband, Rajan Shrestha. She said his phone rang when she first called after the floods, but it later became unreachable. Since then, she has watched every helicopter that landed in Bidur, the capital of Nuwakot district, hoping he might be among the survivors.

"I keep looking at each helicopter, hoping he will step out of it," Shova said.

Glacier Collapse Confirmed as the Cause

The U.S. Geological Survey first reported a magnitude 4.4 earthquake early Wednesday, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Kathmandu, near the border. The agency later updated its analysis to say the seismic event was instead a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse that sent debris flowing downstream.

Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development said an avalanche from a glacier likely caused Wednesday's flash flood. In an emailed statement, they said water levels at one point on the Trishuli River rose by as much as 9 meters (27 feet) in half an hour. The center's 2023 assessment of the region found that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya lost ice about 65% faster in the 2010s than in the previous decade.

The increasingly unstable Himalayan ice system threatens communities, infrastructure and water supplies across one of the world's most densely populated regions. The region saw similar flash floods in August 2025, when a glacial lake in Tibet overflowed because of high temperatures. Nine people were killed, and critical infrastructure, including a bridge connecting Nepal and China, was damaged. Himalayan hydropower installations have been caught in such disasters before as well: in February 2021, a glacier break in India's Uttarakhand state destroyed two hydroelectric plants and left around 200 people dead or missing.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.