At least 63 to 65 Americans were reported missing Thursday, according to differing counts from Nepal’s National Tourism Board, after catastrophic flash flooding triggered by a glacier collapse in Tibet killed more than 160 people and left over 1,300 people missing across Nepal and China, authorities said.
The tourism board’s American missing figure shifted within the day, cited at 65 in one count and at least 63 in a later count, reflecting the fluid nature of casualty reporting a day after the disaster. The Associated Press cautioned that missing person figures are likely to vary across agencies given differences in how data is collected, when it is reported, and gaps in coordination between those compiling the numbers and those conducting rescues in the affected area.
Americans were among more than 30 nationalities represented in the missing person counts released Thursday, many of them tourists in the region for trekking or on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a site sacred to Hindus.
Americans Missing
Nepal’s National Tourism Board reported 65 Americans missing in one count Thursday and at least 63 in a subsequent count, a discrepancy that had not been resolved as of the latest reporting. The figures place the United States among the nations with the highest number of missing citizens, behind only India and Ukraine in the tourism board’s tally.
The U.S. State Department has said it is aware of Americans affected by the floods and is tracking the situation closely, though it had not released its own independent count of missing citizens as of Thursday, relying instead on Nepalese authorities’ figures. The department has not detailed what, if any, consular or evacuation support it is providing to the missing Americans’ families.
Nepal
Nepal police reported at least 165 dead and 826 missing as of Thursday. Local reports citing the National Emergency Operation Center said the missing included 113 Nepali tourists, 85 security personnel from the army and police, 161 residents of Rasuwa district and one resident of Nuwakot district. Nepal’s National Tourism Board separately reported 517 foreigners missing, a figure tracked apart from the domestic totals released by police and emergency officials.
China
Chinese state media reported at least three deaths and 558 people missing in Gyirong County, Tibet, with CCTV reporting that 260 of those missing were foreign nationals. China’s foreign ministry separately said nearly 100 Chinese citizens were missing on the Nepal side of the border, a figure sharply revised down from an earlier Thursday estimate of about 800. Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, addressing reporters in Beijing, said the missing foreigners in China included tourists, pilgrims and other personnel, but said a full nationality breakdown was still being verified.
Nepalese authorities said Thursday that rescuers had located about 100 previously missing Indian visitors and about 25 Chinese workers in the flood zone. It remained unclear whether that development had yet been reflected in the official missing person tallies, given how quickly the figures were changing.
Missing by Nationality
Nepal’s tourism board and other national governments reported the following missing person counts by nationality as of Thursday, though some figures differed slightly depending on the source and time of reporting:
- India: Nepal’s tourism board reported 179 missing in one count and 177 in a later count, with officials saying most were on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash.
- United States: See above.
- Ukraine: Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said 53 Ukrainians were considered missing, including 46 tourists with whom Nepalese authorities had lost contact.
- Malaysia: 51 missing, according to Nepal’s tourism board.
- Australia: The tourism board reported 35 missing, while Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong reported 34.
- Britain: 33 missing, according to the tourism board.
- Canada: 25 missing, according to the tourism board.
- South Korea: South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said nine citizens working at a hydropower plant were missing, with 10 more reported stranded.
- Singapore: Eight missing, according to the tourism board.
- Germany: Eight missing, according to the tourism board.
- Russia: Eight missing, according to the tourism board.
- South Africa: Six missing, according to the tourism board.
- Latvia: Six missing, according to the tourism board.
- Japan: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said five Japanese nationals were unaccounted for, an account matched by Japan’s embassy in Nepal.
- New Zealand: Five missing, according to the tourism board.
- France: Four missing, according to the tourism board.
- Belgium: Three missing, according to the tourism board.
- Spain: Three missing, according to the tourism board.
- Others: The tourism board reported two missing each from Italy, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Ireland and the Netherlands, along with one each from Belarus, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, the Philippines, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Serbia and Sweden.
Why This Matters
The scale of the American missing count, more than 60 U.S. citizens unaccounted for in a single disaster, marks one of the larger mass casualty events involving American travelers abroad in recent memory, and is likely to draw sustained attention from U.S. officials and families as verification continues. The presence of dozens of missing Americans also raises practical questions about coordination between Nepalese search and rescue teams, working across remote and heavily damaged terrain, and the U.S. State Department’s ability to track and support citizens caught in a fast-moving foreign disaster zone.
More broadly, the international spread of the missing, spanning more than 30 countries, reflects the popularity of the Nepal-Tibet border region as both a trekking destination and a pilgrimage route to Mount Kailash, drawing large numbers of foreign visitors even during a less favorable monsoon season for trekking specifically. The sharp revision in China’s missing citizen count, from roughly 800 down to nearly 100 within the span of a single day, illustrates how unreliable early disaster estimates can be in remote, hard to access terrain where communication and verification remain difficult.
The discrepancies between different agencies’ figures, particularly the gap between Nepal police’s overall missing count of 826 and the tourism board’s separate figure of 517 foreigners, suggest overlapping but not fully reconciled tracking systems between security, tourism and emergency management authorities, a coordination challenge that is likely complicating both the rescue effort and the public’s ability to get a clear picture of the disaster’s true scope.
What Happens Next
Authorities in Nepal, China and the affected foreign governments are expected to continue updating and reconciling their missing person figures as search and rescue operations proceed. Thursday’s reported recovery of about 100 Indian visitors and 25 Chinese workers suggests the overall missing count could decline in the coming days as more people are located, though officials have not said how quickly updated, verified totals will be released.
Given the number of foreign governments involved, continued diplomatic coordination is likely as countries work to confirm the status of their citizens and, where necessary, arrange consular support or repatriation for survivors.
Reporting drawn from the Associated Press and Reuters
