Rescuers are searching for nearly 1,400 people, most of them tourists, who are missing after a catastrophic flash flood hit Nepal and Tibet, thundering down valleys, obliterating entire villages and killing at least 356 people.
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The climate crisis is leading to conditions that can destabilise mountain rock and ice, raising the risk for disasters such as this week’s, scientists say.
While the exact cause of Wednesday’s disaster is still being analysed, scientists say it probably began with a massive ice-rock avalanche on the northern slopes of Nepal’s Langtang Lirung peak into the Lhende Khola River on the Tibetan side. Experts caution against describing climate change as the sole, immediate trigger, though they say that rising temperatures and melting glaciers probably played a role in the disaster.
For now, the death toll is expected to rise again, as rescue operations are difficult because of damage to infrastructure and higher-than-normal river levels.
In this video, Guardian reporter Kaamil Ahmed explains three key factors that made this flash flood so deadly.
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