Two Irish citizens missing in Nepal after a severe flash flood have been identified as Santosh Sahu and Spandan Sahu by the country’s department of tourism.
The men’s names were among a list of more than 500 unaccounted for tourists published by the department on Thursday night. According to the department, Spandan is 18 and Santosh is 46.
Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed it was working to account for the two Irish citizens it said were visiting the area.
It said it was closely monitoring the situation and working with partners to locate them.
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“As with all consular cases, the Department does not comment on the detail on individual cases,” a spokesman said.
Santosh and Spandan Sahu were part of a group travelling with Alpine Eco Trek, which offers guided tours and expeditions in Nepal.
They were on a pilgrimage with 15 others to Gosainkunda, a lake considered to be sacred by Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal’s Langtang National Park, according to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon).
In a statement published on Thursday, Iskcon said the 17 missing people were from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Ireland.
“Due to the remote mountain terrain and a lack of cellular connectivity in the region, all direct communication with the group has been severed, raising deep concern among family members, local authorities, and the global Hare Krishna community,” it said.
Meanwhile, Chinese and Nepali rescuers are racing to save lives following the catastrophic flash flood on the Tibet-Nepal border that has left more than 390 people dead and hundreds more missing.
Nepal’s national disaster authority said 910 people were missing while the police said 389 had been confirmed dead after a wall of floodwater and mud wiped out a Himalayan border crossing with China on Wednesday.
The Nepal prime minister’s office reported that at least 85 security personnel, including army and police, were missing. The country’s tourism board said it had been unable to locate 667 tourists – 540 of them foreigners.
The largest group of missing foreign tourists was from India, with 178. There were also 65 from the US, 33 from the UK, 35 from Australia and 25 from Canada.
The country’s prime minister Ballendra Shah said after visiting affected areas that the focus was on finding survivors, with rescue operations “continuously going on”.
The largest number of dead bodies recovered was from Nepal’s Chitwan district, far downstream from the Chinese border, as people were swept down into the plains by the surge of water and mud.
Chinese state media separately said 558 people were missing, almost half of them foreigners, and three were reported dead.
The flood, which Shah described as an “unexpected thunderbolt of a natural disaster”, occurred on the Bhote Koshi, a river in Nepal’s mountainous district of Rasuwa, bordering Tibet.
Shah called for “patience and restraint” amid the rescue and relief efforts, adding that temporary mobile networks would be set up in disaster-affected areas. “With hope and faith we shall all face this disaster [together],” he said in a statement on Facebook.
Nepal, which has deployed military and private helicopters to the scene, urged residents along the riverbank to be on high alert for further floods.
China has warned that further mudslides could occur “at any time” as authorities mounted a huge rescue effort.
“Surrounding mountains could suffer landslides at any moment, and there is also a risk of secondary mudslides,” said Chen Xi from China’s Gyirong Border Defence Company in Tibet, adding it was raining at the disaster site and water levels could rise.
Chinese president Xi Jinping dispatched the country’s second-ranked leader, premier Li Qiang, to the area “to guide the emergency rescue and disaster relief work and to visit the rescue workers and the affected people”, state news agency Xinhua reported.
The Chinese military sent 228 rescue staff to the area and had nearly 5,000 additional personnel ready for deployment.
China said drone footage showed up to 2km of road at the border crossing, known as the Gyirong Port, had been completely destroyed.
The United Nations was sending support to affected communities, secretary general António Guterres said.
While authorities have not specified the exact cause of the disaster, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said an earthquake detected in the area on Wednesday morning was generated by a landslide.
“The USGS determined that the seismic event was a glacial collapse and debris flow that caused subsequent catastrophic impacts downstream,” the agency added.
Nepal’s foreign minister Shisir Khanal described the devastating floods as “one of the largest natural disasters” the country has experienced.
Suraj Sigdel, country director for the relief agency Mercy Corps Nepal, said in a statement that “hundreds are now stranded on isolated hillsides and some have taken refuge in caves”.
“Families are terrified, exhausted, and still trying to learn whether missing relatives and neighbours are alive,” Sigdel added.
“In places, whole settlements have disappeared. Communities that were connected yesterday are now cut off by kilometres of missing roads and collapsed bridges.” – Additional reporting: Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
