Today's Edition
Kathmandu (AFP)
A devastating flood of freezing water smashed through a village on Friday in Nepal's Everest region, local government and army officials said, with experts suspecting a glacial lake outburst.
No deaths were reported but the scale of the brown and muddy flood waters surging through the village of Thame were shocking, videos posted on social media by the local authorities showed.
Thame, a Sherpa village at an altitude of around 3,800 meters (12,470 feet), was home to Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, the first person to climb the world's highest mountain Everest along with New Zealander Edmund Hillary.
"No death has been reported but about 15 houses have been swept away," Nepal army spokesman Gaurav Kumar KC told AFP.
Rescue teams were at the site helping people to safety, he added.
Scientists warn that as climate change causes Himalayan glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, communities can be further exposed to unpredictable and costly disasters.
"There are indications that this incident is a glacial lake outburst flood, but we are investigating to confirm," Arun Bhakta Shrestha, climate change specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said.
Hundreds of glacial lakes formed from glacial melt have appeared out of nowhere in the Himalayas in recent decades and 2,070 were documented in Nepal in a 2020 study by the ICIMOD.
Unlike normal lakes, glacier lakes are unstable because they are often dammed by ice or sediment composed of loose rock and debris.
When accumulating water bursts through these accidental barriers, known as glacial lake outbursts flood, massive flooding can occur downstream.
