Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from Trishuli, Nepal

Image source, Reuters

There was so much hope, so much joy, the last time I was here in Nepal during seismic elections in March.

Gen-Z Nepalis who’d overthrown their previous government after historic protests, had helped elect the new Prime Minister Balen Shah.

At 35, he became Nepal’s leader with only three years of political experience, as mayor of Kathmandu.The fact he was a newcomer was seen as a strength by his voters, frustrated by what they say as decades of failings under Nepal’s old guard.

Now, Balen Shah has been in office a little over six months, and this is the biggest challenge for him yet.

The families we meet are counting on him and emergency workers to lead the search for their loved ones, in the worst disaster the country has seen in more than a decade.

Laura Bicker
China correspondent

Chinese rescue efforts in Tibet have been suspended over fears a lake that formed after the landslide will cause further flooding.

Officials have been monitoring rising water upstream from Gyriong port - the land border between Nepal and Tibet which was swept away in a torrent of mud and water during the landslide on Wednesday.

They now fear after hours of heavy rain, the lake that has formed within the debris could burst its banks and cause more flooding in the coming days.

Rescuers in the area have been told to stop operations for now, according to reports in Chinese state media.

More than 550 people have been reported missing on the Tibetan side of the border - 260 are foreigners including pilgrims making their way to the sacred Mount Kailash in Tibet.

Phanindra Dahal
BBC Nepali, Kathmandu

Nepal's army has dispatched two helicopters to search for people missing at a hydropower tunnel in Trishuli.

It is unclear how many are missing on the site, but each of the helicopters can carry up to 25 people, the army says.

Several others were rescued from the site yesterday, including labourers and those living in surrounding areas, the army says.

Image source, Getty Images

Search teams are still looking for hundreds of missing people two days after a massive flash flood wiped out entire villages in a Nepal-Tibet border area, even as experts warn that a second flood could hit the area.

Here are the latest developments:

• The death toll on the Nepal side has jumped to at least 469 people, with around 900 others unaccounted for
• In Tibet, Chinese authorities say three people are confirmed killed while 555 tourists have been evacuated this morning. It is not clear if the numbers from the the two countries overlap
• In Trishuli, Nepal, search helicopters fly overhead as vehicles below are half-buried in mud-caked roads, writes BBC correspondent Azadeh Moshiri
• The threat of a second flood has put rescuers "on edge", a Red Cross official tells the BBC
• There are fears that a lake of rising water that formed near the China-Nepal border could burst its banks, reports our Senior China correspondent Laura Bicker
• For the families of the missing, like South African businesswoman Bavika Ramjee, it has been an agonising wait for updates
• Local officials tell the BBC a collapsed glacier caused the huge flood wave

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Delhi

It’s a public holiday in India, but the mood across the country is sombre.

Hundreds of Indians, many of whom were in Nepal on pilgrimage, remain missing.

Their families are anxious and desperate for news. That sense of anguish is reflected in newspaper headlines and across social media, where families have been posting videos appealing for information about their loved ones.

As rescue operations continue in Nepal, many are clinging to hope that their relatives will be found.

Peter Hoskins
Business reporter, Singapore

Image source, Sunil Pradhan/Anadolu via Getty Images

As well as the tragic human cost of this natural disaster, the devastating flooding has also dealt a fresh blow to Nepal's new government and its efforts to shore up the country's finances.

When Balendra Shah became prime minister in March this year, he inherited a host of issues, not least a stuttering economy heavily reliant on foreign aid, money being sent home by Nepalis working abroad and imports from its much larger neighbours China and India.

The country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority says 80 bridges and 40km (24.8 miles) of paved roads have been damaged by the deluge.

The flood-hit region is along the border with China, which means that many of those roads and bridges were key to moving goods to and from Nepal's second-largest trading partner.

This presents authorities with not only the huge task of rebuilding key infrastructure but also the impact of serious disruptions to the flow of goods crucial to the country's economy.

Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from Trishuli, Nepal

There are warnings of more possible flooding in northern Nepal as rescuers search for survivors of a flash flood that has killed at least 469 people in the country.

Roads are caked in mud in Trishuli, with some vehicles half-buried.

Police barricades block off entry to some of the worst-affected areas near the river beds, with warnings of more possible flooding to come.

The casualty figures continue to rise, in what has become the worst disaster Nepal has seen since an earthquake in 2015.

This time experts believe a glacier collapsing could have triggered the flooding.

Helicopters are still flying over the mountains, searching for survivors, and delivering relief supplies.

Hundreds of people have been rescued, including most of the 450 people trapped in a tunnel in Trishuli.

Rescue efforts continue, and moments like these offer hope to the families we meet who are desperately waiting for news of their loved ones.

The death toll has risen to 469, Nepal police have said.

We will bring you more on this story as updates become available.

China's Xinhua news agency has just reported that authorities have evacuated 555 stranded tourists from Tibet.

Information has trickled out of Tibet since the floods hit earlier this week, largely due to China's tight media controls. We do not know if these figures overlap with data from the Nepal side.

The Xinhua report did not specify the nationalities of the evacuees. India, Australia and the US have said that their nationals are among those missing in the disaster.

Tessa Wong
Asia Digital Reporter

The US Geological Survey says the floods at the Nepal-Tibet border were triggered by a "glacial collapse" - meaning a glacier or part of a glacier had disintegrated. Initial reports led authorities to believe that an earthquake had been the cause.

The cause of the glacial collapse has not been determined, but scientists have warned that Himalayan glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate due to rising temperatures and climate change.

Read more on this story here.

Daniel Shugar, a geologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, was one of the first scientists to suggest Wednesday's flash flooding event could have been caused by glacial activity.

As we have reported, it was initially believed that the flooding was caused by an earthquake-triggered landslide. However, the US Geological Survey has since confirmed there was no tremor, and the seismic event was instead a collapsing glacier.

Speaking to the BBC, Shugar says more events of this kind have taken place in the past decade than previously, which is more than likely a result of climate change.

He explained that warming-induced glacial thinning can reduce the support glaciers provide to the valley walls above them, which in turn increases the likelihood of landslides.

While Shugar says it is still too early to definitively link this flash flooding event to climate change, it is "certainly something my colleagues and others around the world are looking at".

We've been speaking to people who have friends and family in Nepal, with some fearing the worst - here's a round-up of those we've heard from so far:

"To be honest I believe that they’re not there anymore," says Pramod Poudel, whose wife, mum, uncle and brother have been reported missing.

“We’ve got to accept what happened because it’s obviously not only my family,” Poudel, who runs the Mo Mo Nepalese street food company in Sussex, adds.

Meanwhile, Kavya Koulagi Jayatheertha, whose uncle Prabhath Sajeepa is missing on a journey to the Kailash Yathra, a sacred pilgrimage for Hindus, told the BBC it has been "the most devastating news".

"It has been terrible. I hope he is somewhere safe," his niece says. "We are hoping for good news."

Sisters Ashna and Shreya Ahuja are desperately waiting for news of their parents after flash floods struck Nepal.

“It’s only been one day, but it has felt like much longer,” the sisters tell the BBC. “We just love them a lot and want them to come home.”

Experienced mountaineer Alan Hinkes has previously witnessed flash floods in Nepal, but says he couldn't believe how "explosive" and "violent" Wednesday's disaster was.

"To that force, I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like that for a long time," he told BBC Breakfast.

A Nepalese man living in Aberdeen tells the BBC how he lost three close family members in the deadly flash floods that hit his home country on Wednesday.

Barun Lamichhane, 26, says his brother, uncle and cousin all died in the disaster - but that his mother, father and grandmother managed to escape.

Lamichhane says they managed to get away by "crawling like a baby" into the hillside.

"Luckily they are alive," he says, adding he "can't express" the pain he is feeling about those who have died.

Read more on this story here.

We have been reporting that risks of new flooding persist on the Nepal-Tibet border, further complicating rescue efforts.

Now, Chinese state news agency Xinhua has said that a lake formed after the flash floods is at "high risk of breaching and sending floodwaters downstream', according to the AFP news agency.

Forecasts suggest "inflows into the lake could reach about 3 million cubic meters (3bn litres) over the next three days amid continued rainfall" - the equivalent of 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

This could "potentially cause further damage in areas including Gyirong Port and elsewhere downstream", the state news agency added.

On Wednesday morning, a huge surge of mud and water swept down from the Nepal-Tibet border, leaving destruction in its path. Since then, the number of dead and missing has climbed, with rescue efforts made more challenging by fears of a second flood.

This is how the last nearly 48 hours have developed:

Wednesday

08:37 local time in Nepal (02:52 GMT): A magnitude 5.2 seismic event occurs near the Nepal-Tibet border. This was initially thought to be an earthquake, but the US Geological Survey (USGS) has since said it was a glacial collapse.

The USGS says the flow of debris from the collapse led to "subsequent catastrophic impacts downstream".

Moments later: A wall of water and other material crashes downstream, taking buildings, roads and vehicles in its wake.

14:45: Authorities say 384 tourists are missing, including 291 foreign nationals. Nepalese authorities later confirm that 33 Britons are among those missing.

By 17:00: Nepalese police tells the BBC that at least 17 people have been killed.

22:45: The Nepalese prime minister's office says search and rescue operations will continue throughout the night, with civilian and military personnel mobilised.

Thursday

By 08:00 local time (00:00 GMT) in Tibet: China says three people were killed on the Tibetan side, while 558 others are missing.

Shortly after 07:15 (01:30 GMT) in Nepal: Nepalese police say they have recovered 162 bodies so far. This figure has continued to rise throughout the day - and currently stands at 389.

Mid-morning: The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader who lives in exile from Tibet, says he is praying "for all those who have lost their lives".

14:00 in Nepal: An update from authorities puts the number of missing people at more than 900, including more than 500 foreign nationals.

Around 18:30 in Nepal, the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources says it is preparing for the possibility that a lake of rising water that has formed along the China-Nepal border to burst its banks.

After midnight, Nepal's officials tell the BBC the glacial collapse that caused the flood took place on the Nepali side of the Himalayan mountains, not in Tibet on the Chinese side.

Friday

Around 01:00, Nepal's prime minister's office says 350 people have been rescued from a tunnel near the Trishuli river, as the army works to rescue 100 others inside.

It has just turned 06:45 in Nepal where rescue efforts continue for the hundreds still missing.

The deadly path of the Nepal-Tibet flash floodpublished at 01:44 BST

01:44 BST

By Merlyn Thomas

Using verified videos and satellite imagery, we trace the path of the deadly flash floods that have devastated the Nepal-Tibet border region.

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent

The devastation in Nepal also serves as a warning for India.

Nepal’s Himalayan rivers feed several major Indian river systems, including the Gandaki and Kosi, as well as the Bagmati, Kamla-Balan and others, before flowing into the densely populated plains of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Bihar, India's most flood-prone state, is unusually exposed. Only about 35% of the land that supplies water - through rainfall, streams and smaller rivers - to major north Bihar rivers lies within the state and a lot of the rest is across the border in Nepal and Tibet, according to the government.

Wednesday's catastrophe - which is said to be caused by a glacial collapse that sent a huge debris-filled surge downstream - shows the risk.

Floods don't simply carry water: they carry enormous amounts of sediment, raising river beds and threatening embankments. So what begins as a Himalayan disaster could become an Indian flood emergency.

A woman from Berkshire has been named as one of the 33 British nationals missing after devastating flash floods in Nepal.

Fishtail Tours and Travels confirmed Leena Bector, from Slough, was among 27 travellers linked to the tour company who remain unaccounted for.

Her husband, Bhupesh Bector, told The Times: "I know that she's in Nepal for sure, so even if they find her today or tomorrow, I need to be there."

In an update on Thursday evening, Nepal Police said 389 bodies had been recovered, while the number of people injured and rescued had risen to 466.

You can read more in our story here.