Nepal has established an emergency-response team to coordinate assistance for foreign nationals affected by catastrophic flash flooding in Rasuwa district, near the border with Tibet.

The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the team would coordinate search and rescue, information verification and consular assistance for foreign nationals who are missing, affected or otherwise connected to the flood. The step recognises that the disaster is also an international consular emergency, not only a domestic rescue operation.

Associated Press reported that the scale of the disaster has risen sharply across Nepal and Tibet, with deaths and missing-person reports recorded on both sides of the border. Those numbers are still provisional. They come from different authorities, reflect an evolving search area and should not be merged into a single definitive total without a clear time and source.

Scientists are still investigating the trigger. AP reported that preliminary work pointed to a large glacier or ice-rock collapse that temporarily blocked a river before a destructive surge travelled downstream. That is a preliminary explanation, not a final causal finding.

The immediate reporting priority is practical: which roads and crossings remain open, where families can seek verified information, how rescuers are reaching isolated communities and whether missing foreign nationals can be identified safely. A responsible follow-up should let Nepalese authorities, rescue workers and affected families define the information gap rather than filling it with dramatic but unverified images or claims.