Pakistan will send emergency relief assistance to Nepal after flash floods and landslides killed more than 626 people and left hundreds missing, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has said.
PM Shehbaz made the announcement after speaking with his Nepali counterpart Balendra Shah and expressing Pakistan’s support amid ongoing rescue operations.
“Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with the Government and people of Nepal in this difficult hour,” Sharif said in a post on X.
“I assured Prime Minister Shah of our full support and conveyed that Pakistan is dispatching emergency relief assistance to contribute to the ongoing relief efforts.”
Earlier, Nepali police reported 547 deaths while the country’s disaster management authority put the death toll at 538. More than 3,700 people have been rescued, while 977 remain unaccounted for.
Rescue teams continued operations across the country on Friday, with helicopters evacuating people stranded due to the floods and emergency workers searching through mud and debris.
Authorities also warned of another possible wave of flooding from a barrier lake that formed in the Himalayas after the glacier collapse that triggered the disaster. The lake was already overflowing when Nepali police issued another alert after receiving information that a dam on the Tibet side had burst.
Scientists analysing satellite images said that bedrock beneath a glacier in the Himalayan region had collapsed, bringing part of the glacier down with it. The rockfall and melting ice increased water levels in rivers below, sending water, mud and debris through communities in Tibet and Nepal.
Nepal’s tourism board said that more than 500 foreign nationals were among those reported missing. Some are believed to have been travelling to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a site considered sacred by Hindus, Buddhists and followers of other religions.
