Simon Atkinson
Australia reporter

Each day the official number of Australians unaccounted for in the disaster has risen slightly. Today the government said it now understood that 43 Australians were missing.

"We haven't given up hope that we can rescue those Australians safe and well," Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlewaite told the ABC.

"We're doing everything we can, working around the clock to try and locate those missing Australians."

One of those who was initially listed as missing, Cara Severino, hiked to safety and was picked up by consular officials over the weekend.

In a statement yesterday, her parents said: “We are so grateful to her Nepalese hiking partners who saw her through a harrowing several days of hiking in very difficult terrain, so thankful that they have all made it to safety."

Image source, Reuters

A woman whose husband is believed to be trapped inside a hydropower tunnel in Nepal's Trishuli-3A site when the catastrophic flood broke out last Wednesday is stil holding out hope that he is alive.

"I still have a 50% hope that he is alive because there is an oxygen system inside," Sita Pandey told Nepali newspaper Kantipur.

"But with every hour that passes, that hope becomes thinner."

At least 897 people associated with hydropower projects, including Pandey's husband Jiblal Adhikari, are still unaccounted for, according to the Nepal Electricity Authority and the Independent Power Producers' Association.

Delays with the rescue operations have frustrated their loved ones – rescuers began pumping air into the tunnel over the weekend, but some families say that should have been done earlier.

"The longer it takes, the more our hope dies. This operation must move much faster because every second is meaningful to us," Jiban Khadka, whose relative is also trapped inside the plant told the paper. "It's a frustratingly slow operation."

Climate change is known to be driving faster glacier melt in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.

Geologist Daniel Shugar – one of the first experts to suggest Wednesday's flash flooding could have been caused by glacial activity – said glacial thinning caused by global warming could increase the risk of landslides.

But it is still too early to link the event to climate change definitively, Shugar, who is based at the University of Calgary in Canada, has told the BBC.

Simon Cook, a geoscientist at the University of Dundee, said however that climate change "could have an impact".

"Permafrost is partially holding some mountainsides together, this permafrost is warming and thawing and degrading so you are going to get more landslides," he has said.

Survivors of massive flash floods in Nepal have recounted how they saw their loved ones disappear into torrents of mud.

"My family members were swept away by the flood in front of my eyes," Nuwakot distric resident Kalpana Malla told the BBC.

Malla says her father, mother, sister and sister's children were all claimed by the disaster.

"They could not escape the flood. There was no chance at all," she says. "This flood took everything but my son and I climbed the rooftop of a house and survived but couldn't explain how."

Another survivor, Goma Pandit, has said she's lost her buffaloes and all her other cattle.

"My farmland is also swept away. Ten sacks of mustard seed, tons of corn and rice paddy are all gone, nothing left."

Thousands in Nepal are still waiting to be rescued, but unpredictable weather is making rescue operations increasingly difficult.

South Asia correspondent Azadeh Moshiri reports from the scene.

Nepalese media have reported that rescuers are searching for the father of a young girl who was rescued from the floodwaters in Khalte, Rasuwa earlier this week.

Local media reports that Ishara, 5, became trapped in a net after she lost hold of her mother's hand and watched as she was swept away by the floodwaters. She was reportedly rescued and taken to a paediatric hospital.

Staff there tell Nepal's Online Khabar news site that Ishara arrived to hospital unconscious but was able to provide her name and recount her story after she awoke.

"No one from her family has been in contact. We don't know whether someone will come looking for her. So, for now, we are doing our best to care for her like our own child," healthcare worker Pavitra Magar told Online Khabar.

Ishara reportedly told staff that her father was in Kathmandu. The news site says that attempts are being made to find her father via social media.

Image source, Reuters

Rescue operations have entered their sixth day after flash floods devastated the Nepal-Tibet border region, with the death toll reaching nearly 800.

In Kathmandu, BBC Nepali has spoken to people leaving pictures of missing loved ones on the wall of a hospital in the hope of finding them.

Meanwhile, at the Trishuli-3A hydroelectric facility, rescuers have managed to create a hole wide enough to enter and begin the search for survivors, but have so far received no response.

Of the more than 2,500 missing people, hundreds are believed to be workers in Nepal's hydropower sites.

Also among the missing are foreign nationals from all over the world - we've got a breakdown here.

Amid the loss and devastation, there have also been stories of hope and rescue - we've looked at some of those in an earlier post.

In Tibet, which is controlled by China, the official death toll is 16, with 546 reported to be missing - around half are thought to be foreign nationals.

Officials in Shigatse say rescue teams are not finding anyone alive, the BBC's China correspondent writes.

Image source, Reuters

Earlier today special prayers were held at the south London Sanatan Mandir temple, where the community holds out hope for 16 of its members who remain missing since Wednesday's floods.

Prajval Haldia, 22, whose parents are among the missing, says he is "trying to stay positive".

"I was really close to my parents. I'm an only child, so, like, losing that support system, the people you speak to every day, it's really hard, but we're just hoping to hear good news very soon," he tells news agency AFP.

"Everyone's here for the same thing, to try and hope for, and be positive, and pray for everyone coming back home safely."

Image source, AFP

Shreejana Shrestha
BBC Nepali, reporting from Kathmandu

Image source, BBC Nepali

I've been speaking to people appealing for information to find loved ones at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, where the images of missing people cover a wall.

"This is my brother." Nani Maya BK tells me. "This too, this too."

She continues: "This is my son. This one too."

She says she has heard of many people stuck in forests, waiting to be rescued. "I hope they could be found among them," she says.

"I am posting their photos, asking them to contact us once they see them."

Phanindra Dahal and Swati Joshi
BBC Nepali and South Asia visual journalism

At least 19 schools have been affected across the three districts worst hit by the floods, Nepal's education ministry says.

At least nine schools have been destroyed and seven others have been partially damaged, and teachers and students have been reported missing at several institutions.

According to the latest assessment by the Ministry of Education and Sports, more than 200 students are missing and about 20 have been swept away by the floods.

Most of the schools that have been severely damaged are in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts.

Several schools in these two districts, where 2,425 students were studying, have either been flooded or buried.

One school reported that the flood swept away a bus carrying one of its students.

BBC's South Asia visual journalism mapped out the areas where the schools were hit using satellite imagery.

Gani Ansari
BBC Nepali, reporting from Kathmandu

Image source, RSS

Several days since the floods hit, residents in Nepal's Rasuwa district say they are still cut off from basic services and have yet to receive relief.

Rasuwa lies upstream and closer to the location of the landslide. It bore the brunt of the flooding, with roads washed away. More than four days later, residents say they are still isolated.

"There is no electricity, no roads to go anywhere, and relief has not reached here," Hembe Tamang, 40, from Aamachhodingmo Rural Municipality, told me by phone. Tamang's son-in-law is among those missing after the floods.

With power still out, many residents say they have struggled to stay in touch with relatives. A solar panel at the municipal office has become one of the few places where people can charge their phones, often after waiting for hours.

Health workers have also warned that supplies are running low, with enough food remaining for a day or two and gas completely gone.

Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority says aid is being delivered where roads remain passable, while work is under way to reopen routes and reach communities still cut off by the floods.

The Nepal Tourism Board says 289 foreign nationals have been rescued since the floods hit earlier in the week.

Another 591 are out of communication as of 18:00 local time (13:15 BST), the board adds.

"Search, rescue, evacuation and assistance operations are continuing for those who remain stranded, injured or otherwise affected," it says in its latest statement.

Sean Dilley
BBC correspondent

Image source, Supplied

Prajval Haldia, from south London, says the UK Foreign Office has updated him on his parents' whereabouts prior to Wednesday's floods.

The Foreign Office tells him that, according to information from the Chinese government, Pavan and Kavita Haldia completed immigration at the Gyirong Port and were registered as missing on the Tibetan side of the border.

The Londoner had dropped his parents off at the airport for their trip to Kathmandu. He knew they were planning to visit Mount Kailash, but hadn't heard of their whereabouts since news of the floods.

"This is a significant development in our search," Haldia tells the BBC. He goes on to call on the British government and relevant authorities to "collaborate as much as they possibly can with their Chinese counterparts at this time".

Haldia continues to hold on to hope for his parents' safe return, voicing gratitude "for every effort being made to locate them".

Malu Cursino
Live reporter

We've heard stories through the day of hope and relief from survivors of the deadly floods near the Nepal-Tibet border, offering some light as crews work around the clock to respond to the disaster.

The head teacher of a school in Nuwakot told BBC Nepali about his decision to evacuate 900 pupils to safety after receiving a series of calls warning of floods in the area.

Sixteen-year-old Yunisha - a pupil at the school - says her and her friends survived "by just 10 seconds". Her mother, Sabina Shrestha, recalled the worry and relief she felt once her daughter returned home - three days later.

In the capital Kathmandu, a five-year-old girl rescued on Friday (two days after devastating flash floods) was reunited with her parents in hospital. Staff at the Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu say the girl, identified as Manisha, is in a stable condition.

The scale of destruction in Nepal continues to come into focus, five days on. Police say more than 790 people have been killed by the floods. Elsewhere, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority says at least 2,502 people are still missing.

Rescue efforts are under way near Nepal's Trishuli-3A hydropower site, with crew pumping air into a tunnel where workers are believed to be trapped.

The PM's office says a team of 90 - including armed forces, police and rescuers with trained dogs - were deployed. But so far, they have "received no response from inside".

In Tibet 16 people are confirmed dead and 546 others are missing, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Officials in Shigatse say rescue teams are not finding anyone alive, the BBC's China correspondent writes. China annexed Tibet in the 1950s and their strict control of the region makes it difficult for us to know what is happening on the ground.

A bus carrying people rescued after the flood in Rasuwa crashed in Danda, east of Nawalparasi, according to Nepal's National News Committee.

The bus was travelling the capital Kathmandu to Bardiya, in south-west Nepal.

Thirty-two of the 38 passengers were injured, the outlet adds.

Of those, 27 have already been discharged after being treated, and five remain in hospital, says Deputy Superintendent of Police Anil Pandit of the Nawalpur East District Police Office.

Night has fallen in Nepal but people continue to look through lists of survivors, using torches on their phones as they desperately seek information about loved ones.

Rescue and relief efforts have continued throughout the day. But as the death toll rises, police have also been seen transporting bodies to a mass burial site.

Meanwhile, some have been pictured returning to their homes to inspect the damage.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The prime minister's office in Nepal says tunnel rescue efforts have been "intensified" at the Trishuli-3A hydropower site, including "blasting operations".

Writing on X, it says a joint team of 90 people has been deployed, including armed forces, police, and rescuers with trained dogs.

A 2x3ft hole (0.6x0.9m) was created in the crown of the tunnel earlier, with rescuers descending on ropes. They "received no response from inside" when they called out.

Operations have continued, with the team "working tirelessly around the clock" despite "difficult and risky conditions", the PM's office says.

Of the more than 2,500 missing people, hundreds are believed to be workers in Nepal's hydropower sites.

The number of bodies recovered since Wednesday has increased to 794 as of 17:45 local time on Sunday (13:00 BST), Nepal Police says in its latest update.

In a separate update, the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Authority (NDRRMA) says 781 people have been killed and 2,502 remain missing.

As a reminder, over the last few days information has been coming in from multiple agencies in Nepal and official figures don't always match up.

Tourists from all over the world come to Nepal for its mountains and sacred sites.

Reports of those missing include the following:

• India - at least 320 Indian nationals are missing, the foreign ministry in Delhi says

• China - The Chinese foreign ministry says nearly 100 Chinese nationals are missing in Nepal
• US - 90 Americans are still missing, the US state department says
• Ukraine - 62 Ukrainian nationals are missing, Nepalese police say
• Malaysia - 51 Malaysians travelling with Fishtail Tours and Travels are missing in the floods, officials say
• Australia - 41 Australians are unaccounted for, according to the country's assistant immigration minister
• UK - Nepal's police say 33 British nationals are missing; Chinese state broadcaster CCTV also reports 15 British nationals are among the missing in Tibet - it is unclear how many of those are included in the figure reported by Nepal
• Canada - 30 Canadians are missing, says the country's foreign ministry

Smaller numbers of travellers from South Korea, South Africa, Portugal, the Netherlands and New Zealand are also among the missing.

Ashok Dahal and Kamal Pariyar
BBC Nepali, reporting from Nuwakot district

One of the 900 students saved by the headteacher's decision was 16-year-old Yunisha, who says she escaped only moments before the flood.

"I, along with my friends, survived by just 10 seconds," she tells the BBC.

Yunisha describes running up a narrow and muddy route behind the school with other students. "Within no time, the bazaar was swept away in front of my eyes", she adds.

Yunisha, who was interviewed alongside her mother Sabina Shrestha, says the family spent hours desperately trying to contact her after hearing news of the flood.

"I was panicking. I tried multiple calls to my daughter and her father, but both were not reachable."

When she finally got through, Shrestha recalls feeling some relief. But the family remained anxious until Yunisha returned home - three days later.

"I am so happy and relieved. God saved my girl."