Tibet Mudslide: Videos Show Disaster That Left UK and US Tourists Feared Dead, Among Others

• A devastating mudslide struck Gyirong County in Tibet, a busy border crossing between China and Nepal with a population of around 4,000
• Surveillance footage captured buildings being completely engulfed by mud and water as roads, communications and power were disrupted across the region
• Chinese President Xi Jinping issued personal directives to rescue teams, a move observers say signals the severity of the disaster

A deadly mudslide has struck the Tibetan border region of Gyirong County in China, killing an unconfirmed number of people and leaving others unaccounted for, according to Chinese state media.

Surveillance camera footage from the border area captured the moment several buildings were fully submerged beneath a torrent of mud and water.

Roads, communications and electricity supply in the affected area remain disrupted, complicating ongoing rescue efforts.

BBC reported that 12 British nationals were among the approximately 400 missing tourists.

The US embassy in Nepal says it is working to account for citizens who may have been affected by the disaster.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping has personally directed rescue teams to spare no effort in searching for those still missing. In China, direct intervention by the country's top leadership is widely regarded as a signal that a disaster has reached a serious scale, particularly given the tightly controlled nature of domestic media reporting, which makes independent verification of casualty figures difficult.

Independent coverage of events in Tibet is especially limited, and the full extent of the damage has not been independently confirmed.

Gyirong County: A Busy Border Crossing

Gyirong County serves as the principal crossing point for tourists and cargo moving between China and Nepal.

Approximately 4,000 people reside in the area, and local workers who spoke to the BBC confirmed that several Chinese construction projects were active in the Tibetan border region at the time of the disaster.

In response to the emergency, Chinese authorities mobilised multiple agencies, deploying a dedicated team of 200 personnel drawn from geological, engineering and emergency response units.

The team arrived equipped with reconnaissance drones, 3D laser scanners, life detectors and specialist rescue equipment to support the search operation.

The mudslide comes during a period when the region was already dealing with significant infrastructure activity, raising concerns about the vulnerability of communities and workers in the area to natural disasters of this kind.

Source: YEN.com.gh