Nepal floods lead to at least 270 deaths with more than 1,300 missing

More than 1,300 people are missing including at least 700 foreigners after flash floods struck Rasuwa district in northern Nepal on Wednesday. More than 270 people are confirmed dead, with search and rescue operations ongoing.

Emergency teams were racing to evacuate survivors from affected zones, as new flash floods could not be ruled out. The sudden rush of mud and debris was "like an inland tsunami", travelling nearly 170 kilometres  south into Nepal, said environmental historian Ruth Gamble, of Australia's La Trobe University.

Rasuwa, in the north of Nepal, was the first district to be affected. But deaths have been reported from seven Nepali districts in total as the flood waters raged through to Chitwan in the south, on the border with India.

The US Geological Survey said the flood was sparked by a glacial collapse, that caused seismic activity and the "catastrophic" downstream impacts in Nepal and Tibet.