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

The headteacher of a Nepali school devastated by floods says he was prompted to evacuate around 900 pupils to safety after receiving a series of calls warning against the risk of a flood in the area.

Rajendra Dawadi, who leads Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot - which has a total student population of just over 1,600 - says he received four warnings from different people within minutes.

Among these calls were reports that floodwaters had already swept through the upstream settlement of Betrawati.

That's when he made the call. "I decided I shouldn't delay any more. Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day's classes," he tells the BBC.

As they evacuated to higher ground, Dawadi could see a hostel building about 100m (328ft) from the river being engulfed by floodwaters.

"If we had made the decision 10 minutes later, all of us, including the students and me, would not be able to speak to you today."

Nepal Police says that 788 people have died following the flash floods.

This follows an earlier report from Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Authority (NDRRMA), which says that 752 people have been killed.

As a reminder, information is coming from multiple different agencies in Nepal and official figures don't always match up.

Stephen McDonell
China correspondent

It is pretty grim news from the Tibetan side of the border.

According to officials in Shigatse, the rescue teams are not finding anyone alive.

They have been looking for days and on the fifth day of the emergency chances of finding any other survivors are becoming very small.

With 546 people missing - around half of those foreign nationals - that means the death toll will go up in Tibet.

However, engineers are close to establishing a road link to the worst-hit area after a powerful wave of water and mud destroyed infrastructure in the region.

Sadly, though you have to think that by the time that link is re-established it will be too late for the hundreds of people still missing.

The Nepali Army has just shared footage on X of helicopters airlifting heavy equipment to the flood-affected hydropower tunnel area.

The machinery can be seen dangling from the end of a long rope.

A separate video - also shared by the army - shows workers clearing debris near the Trishuli-3A tunnel.

Part of the rescue effort is focused on reaching workers believed to be trapped in hydropower tunnels, with efforts currently under way at the Trishuli-3A site.

Home Minister Sudan Gurung shared an update on Facebook yesterday saying rescuers had managed to reach the "crown" of the tunnel and had started pumping air through a small hole.

He said they would "now start digging and send a rescue team inside".

In a separate update also issued yesterday, Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha said communication had so far not been established.

Rain has complicated efforts, with Shrestha saying there was a risk the operation would need to be temporarily suspended due to "increasing water flow".

India and China have both sent experts to help in tunnel operations.

Of the 2,502 people reported missing overall, hundreds are workers at the country's hydropower projects, according to Nepal's disaster agency.

The younger brother of one hydropower worker tells Reuters he has been searching for him for days "without getting any sleep". He adds: "I believe there are many other families like mine who are suffering."

Azadeh Moshiri and Andrew Clarence
Reporting from Kathmandu

A young girl who was rescued on Friday, two days after devastating flash floods in Nepal, has been reunited with her parents in hospital.

Manisha, 5, is in a stable condition, an official at the Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu tells us.

Rescue workers were near Syabrubesi in Ruswa district looking for survivors when they thought they could hear a cat stuck under the rubble.

Sanju Khatri, a police officer with Nepal's Armed Police Force says teams searched the area and started removing debris. That's when they found Manisha, who was trapped under the rubble.

It took about two hours to rescue her - the video below shows the moment she was pulled alive from the rubble.

She was alive but barely responsive, the official explains. The rescue team called for a chopper but due to bad weather conditions they were not able to evacuate her.

Teams then took her to the force's rescue camp and gave her water. Manisha regained consciousness after a while and they started feeding her boiled rice water to revive her.

She was traumatised, but on Saturday afternoon she was flown to the Teaching Hospital's paediatric emergency department in Kathmandu.

In an update on Sunday, the hospital tells us Manisha is recovering.

Anant Patel's parents, Bipin and Mala, were on a pilgrimage when the landslide occurred on the Nepal-Tibet border. He hasn't heard from them since the flash floods on Wednesday.

Patel, who is from Coventry, tells the BBC he is staying strong, adding "I'm holding up as well as I can do".

The death toll has risen to 752, according to Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Authority (NDRRMA).

Earlier, the NDRRMA and Nepal police said 734 people had been confirmed dead.

The agency reports that 2,502 are missing, up from 2,498 previously.

The update is timestamped at 13:00 local time (07:15 GMT).

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Nepal

Nepal's police and disaster management authority say 734 people have been confirmed dead following devastating flash floods on the border with Tibet on Wednesday.

The latest figure, released this morning, is a rise from the 675 deaths reported yesterday.

Nepal Police also report that 2,498 people are missing and 8,186 people have been rescued. The latest figures show that nearly 20,000 rescuers from the security forces have been deployed.

Meanwhile, in its latest update the Nepal Tourism Board says that 261 foreign nationals have been rescued while 320 tourists are still not accounted for.

Tibet

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reports that 16 people have died following the mudslide in Tibet. Officials had previously said that seven people had died.

Our correspondent explains why China's strict control in Tibet makes it very difficult for us to know what is happening.

CCTV adds that 546 people remain missing following the incident, including 261 foreigners from 23 countries - including 15 British nationals.

Nepalese authorities have already reported that 33 British nationals are missing. Several of them are thought to have been making their way across the border to Tibet, so it is unclear how many of the British nationals reported as missing by Chinese authorities are included in the figure reported by Nepal.

The BBC has contacted the Chinese foreign ministry and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

Image source, Reuters

New pictures show the rescue operation continuing today - five days after the disaster.

At an army barracks in Nuwakot district, soldiers could be seen escorting children to safety after evacuating them from flood-hit areas.

Families of the missing have been waiting outside the camp, still desperately hoping for news of their loved ones.

Helicopters are playing an essential role in the rescue operation, with Nepal's foreign minister saying yesterday that some areas had turned into "swampland".

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Jacob Phillips
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

A flooding expert warns that the immediate concern in Nepal and Tibet is that the flash floods have created new risks.

Jeff Da Costa, researcher in flood early warning and disaster risk at the University of Reading, tells me that debris from the disaster has blocked rivers and formed new lakes upstream.

Similarly, infrastructure in the area is seriously damaged, meaning that "a second flood does not have to be as large as the first to cause serious impacts," he says.

Da Costa says monitoring how lakes and barriers in the area are changing and tracking where they may burst "now matters enormously".

The researcher adds it is important for China and Nepal to share monitoring information as "what happens upstream can affect people across the border very quickly".

"Information has to move just as quickly and lead to practical decisions on the ground," he adds.

Da Costa also describes how climate change is important background context for the disaster because warming is changing glaciers, permafrost and slope stability across the Himalayas.

But he says the disaster can not be attributed to climate change without further analysis.

Simon Atkinson
Australia reporter

The sister of an Australian man missing in Nepal say they are "holding onto hope while also trying to prepare our hearts for whatever comes".

Michael Keats, an outdoor educator from New South Wales, was initially thought to be away from the disaster zone, but relatives later learned he was at the immigration centre at the Nepal-Tibet border when the tragedy hit.

His sister, Karen Hayley, describes him as "the absolute light of our lives" and says he was travelling through Nepal "as part of a deeply significant spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash".

"This was a journey Michael had planned, dreamed of and longed to experience for a long time," she wrote on Instagram.

"Although we are painfully aware that Michael’s chances of survival may be slim our family is still desperately waiting for answers."

She adds the family are "holding onto hope while also trying to prepare our hearts for whatever comes".

Laura Bicker
China correspondent

Image source, VCG via Getty Images

Tibet, which China annexed in the 1950s, is one of the most strictly controlled regions in the country.

It has long demanded greater autonomy and is heavily monitored because Beijing fears any signs of instability such as protests.

That is why orders have come personally from the top leader Xi Jinping and why Premier Li Qiang visited the site on Thursday. It is rare for him to make a visit so soon after a major disaster.

To get into Tibet requires a special visa and it is difficult, if not impossible, for foreign media to gain entry. Trying to contact people there is just as hard.

This makes it very difficult for us to know what is happening and we are relying heavily on reports from Chinese state media.

Pilgrims making their way from Nepal through Tibet to the sacred mountain of Mount Kailash need four separate permits, which includes special permission from the Chinese military.

Laura Bicker
China correspondent

As we've just reported, rescue teams on the Tibetan border have been moved to safety after a drone monitoring the region spotted yet another landslide.

Reports from state media, citing China’s Ministry of Emergency Management, said a monitoring drone had detected the landslide downstream of a lake which has been formed within the rubble and debris.

This has now formed a second so-called barrier lake.

These bodies of water are being assessed by experts, according to the state broadcaster’s report.

Fears of flooding from the lake have already sparked panic on both sides of the border earlier this week. On Friday, ice and snow fell from the mountain and into the lake causing it to overflow.

Experts in China have been monitoring its levels since then and have set up observation posts to raise an alarm should it overflow.

A new lake has formed in Tibet after a landslide occurred downstream of the existing barrier lake, Chinese state media says.

A barrier lake is a body of water formed when debris dams up a river. An existing barrier lake, which formed in the aftermath of the flash floods, had reportedly been depleting naturally following concerns it could result in more flooding.

Chinese Central TV (CCTV) says a monitoring drone detected a landslide on Saturday, which then resulted in debris forming a new blockage and a new barrier lake.

The landslide is reported to have occurred about 2.8 kilometres (1.7 miles) downstream of the barrier lake on the Pruqpu Qiang Zangbu River.

China's Ministry of Emergency Management quickly gathered experts to assess the situation and rescuers near the Gyirong Port have been moved to a safe location, it adds.

As we reported a short while ago, Nepal's disaster agency says the death toll in the country has jumped to 734, up from the 675 reported yesterday.

In the last hour, Nepal's Police also reported that 734 bodies have been recovered.

It also shared the following figures:

• Missing: 2,498
• Rescued: 8,186
• Injured: 242 (includes some who have been discharged)
• Security forces deployed: 19,895

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just joining us, here is what you need to know as rescue operations in the Nepal-Tibet border area hit by a deadly flash flood enters the fifth day:

• Officials in Nepal say 734 people have been confirmed dead following flash floods on Wednesday, up from the 675 reported yesterday evening
• Chinese state media report that the death toll in Tibet has risen to 16 - here's why it has been harder to assess the scale of the disaster in Tibet
• Nepal counts more than 2,400 people missing while China has reported 546 missing, including 261 foreign nationals

• Aid has been arriving, but rough terrain and rains are making delivery extremely difficult, according to the UN
• Rescuers in Nepal working through the night on Saturday are battling adverse weather in their efforts to reach workers trapped in hydroelectric tunnels in flood hit areas
• Nepal's disaster response agency has received reports of a flood level increase near the Bhote Koshi River, one of the two rivers through which the initial debris flow travelled on Wednesday. It has asked people to stay alert in areas around the river

Laura Bicker
Reporting from Beijing

Image source, Getty Images

As we reported earlier, authorities in China say 16 people have been confirmed dead and more than 540 remain missing in Tibet.

Chinese state media said that among the 546 people missing after Wednesday’s landslide, 261 are foreigners from 23 countries - including 15 British nationals.

Search and rescue teams are still combing through the mud and debris at the border but have so far found no survivors.

Gyirong Port is the main crossing point for tourists trekking from Kathmandu to the sacred Mount Kailish in Tibet.

Meanwhile the danger posed by a lake which formed amid the landslide debris appears to have subsided for now, however authorities say there is still a continued risk of further mudslides and have set up monitoring stations to alert rescue teams along the border.

Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from Kathmandu

The forecast suggests the rain will continue until at least Monday, adding to an already challenging search and rescue operation.

Many remain trapped in hydropower tunnels in northern Nepal, and thick mud is blocking rescuers from entering them.

India and China have both sent experts to help. With hundreds of foreign nationals missing, aid is continuing to pour in.

The United States has pledged $3.6m in humanitarian assistance, while the United Kingdom has sent a rapid deployment team to Nepal to support British nationals.

This is Nepal’s worst disaster in more than a decade. Scientists believe the flash flood was triggered by a “glacial collapse", when all or part of a glacier disintegrates, and led to “catastrophic impacts downstream".

Despite the scale of the disaster, thousands of people have been rescued.

But as the search enters a fifth day, many of the families we meet tell us they’re preparing for the worst.

The death toll in Nepal has risen to 734, the country's disaster management agency says.