A low double-digit number of German nationals are among the more than 1,400 people reported missing after the devastating flash flood in Nepal and Tibet, according to Germany's Federal Foreign Office. "We are working under high pressure to establish the facts," a ministry spokesperson said in Berlin on Friday. The scale of the catastrophe, he said, was "still very difficult to assess." According to Nepal's tourism authority, at least eight Germans are among those unaccounted for.
The Foreign Office spokesperson said conditions in the affected region remained "still very, very unclear." Reports had emerged of German citizens who had been staying in the area "and who could not be reached after the accident."
German missions abroad are in "close contact" with relatives and with local authorities. Already on Thursday, the Foreign Office had stated that German officials on the ground were in the process of compiling "reliable information on the whereabouts of German nationals." "A low three-digit number of German nationals" is currently in Nepal, the spokesperson said. In the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, "it is a single-digit number."
In view of the "terrible" images coming out of the disaster area, the population could count on support from Germany, the Foreign Office spokesperson said. Nepalese authorities, however, have indicated that they "currently do not need any further international support."
The German government expressed "its deep sympathy to the relatives of the victims and to all those affected," a government spokesperson said in Berlin. "Germany stands ready to provide support in these difficult hours," he added. The Chancellor had already commented on the subject on Wednesday evening on the online service X.
On Wednesday, a vast flash flood of water, mud and debris surged almost 170 kilometres along two rivers through Nepal, sweeping away entire settlements. According to the US earthquake monitoring agency USGS, the cause was a glacier collapse. The Tibet Autonomous Region in neighbouring China was also hit by the disaster. According to figures so far, at least 543 people have lost their lives.
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