Live Updates: 8 Dead and Hundreds Feared Missing as Floods Sweep Away Villages in Nepal

As many as 384 tourists, including 291 foreigners, have been reported missing in the affected areas, the Nepal Tourism Board said in a statement, saying it had been unable to contact them. They included dozens of visitors from India, a dozen Britons and at least three Americans. There were also citizens from Australia, the Netherlands, Malaysia and South Africa among the missing.

Thousands of people live in the riverside settlements downstream from the flooding. The authorities have yet to estimate the number of people missing and the extent of property damage, but said that bridges, schools and hydropower projects had been swept away.

The Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal said 14 hydropower projects, including five under construction, have been affected.

“There was no rain in Nepal, so we were not expecting anything like this,” said Narendra Priyar, the chief district officer of Rasuwa, one of the areas affected by the floods.

On the Tibetan side of the border with Nepal, mudslides left people missing people in Gyirong. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, issued a statement stressing the need for flood prevention. Other members of the Politburo’s Standing Committee in Beijing made similar remarks.

Drone footage broadcast on China’s state television news showed buildings buried at Gyirong port, where goods are traded across the international border.

Even more of the excess water seems to have barreled down the Bhotekoshi River to the south, into Nepal’s Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• Earlier Flood: The last time flash flooding happened along the Bhotekoshi, last year, its cause was traced back to a glacial lake bursting its banks. Such incidents are called G.L.O.F.s, for “glacial lake outburst flood,” and they have become more common as climate change intensifies and the annual melting of Himalayan snows becomes more irregular.

• Rescue Effort: Security teams led by the Nepali Army have been carrying out rescue operations. The army has mobilized 12 helicopters, set up a temporary hospital in the flood zone and evacuated at least 13 seriously injured people to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.

• Cabinet Meeting: The government called an emergency cabinet meeting and said it would give priority to rescue operations and provide free treatment to everyone affected. Nepal’s education minister, Sasmit Pokharel, said the country had sought help from both its giant neighbors, China and India, to strengthen its rescue operations.

Pei-Lin Wu contributed reporting from Taipei.