The death toll from catastrophic flooding that struck Nepal and China's Tibet region has passed 1,000, with rescue teams warning that glaciers responsible for triggering the disaster remain at "major risk" of further collapse. China's Ministry of Water Resources said the glacier that broke apart on Nepal's Cuojian River on 26 August, sending rock, ice and meltwater surging through valleys and destroying homes, roads and bridges, could still cause additional flooding if unstable ice further downstream gives way. The situation matters because it complicates an already desperate rescue effort and threatens communities still recovering from the initial disaster.

Satellite imagery showed the water body at the impact site shrinking from 108,000 to 83,000 square metres between Sunday and Monday, though officials warned landslides could still dam the river and form a new barrier lake, while further rain is forecast for Tibet's Gyirong county over the next three days. In Nepal, rescuers are focused on locating around 900 workers missing from 12 hydropower projects, roughly 500 of whom are believed trapped in flooded, mud-choked tunnels; soldiers and foreign experts have been pumping air into tunnels and using drilling equipment to reach survivors, though a former hydropower project chief warned that without adequate oxygen and food, workers' chances of survival after this long are uncertain.