In an unusual flooding event in the Everest region, the swollen Thame river destroyed 20 houses, Thame elementary school and a clinic in ward 5 of Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality in Solukhumbu District on Friday afternoon.

A local resident went missing in the flood, police said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Dwarika Prasad Ghimire of District Police Office, Solukhumbu said that the Thame river, which runs along the border of Dolakha and Solukhumbu districts, suddenly flooded, sweeping through the settlement at around 1:30pm.

Videos posted on social media showed people running to safety as the floodwaters surged.

The Himalayan village, consisting of around 40 houses, is accessible by a five-hour trek from Namche. Although Thame is usually bustling with tourists during the peak season, it has now been severely impacted by the disaster.

According to Lhakpa Chhiri Sherpa, the spokesperson for the rural municipality, Thame has a population of 370. Since it is an off-season for tourism, around 160 people, including around 40 children, were in Thame when the disaster struck. Those whose houses were swept away by the flood have taken shelter in Thameteng, a village located above Thame. A total of 135 people have been displaced.

With most residents having already left for Kathmandu due to the off-season, only a few people remained in the village, and many others had gone to the weekly marketplace in Namche. Also, there were no one in the school when the flood inundated the area as it had already closed for the day due to Friday’s half-day schedule.

Most of the youth in Thame, the village of renowned climber Apa Sherpa, continue to work in the mountaineering profession. Besides running hotels, the locals are engaged in potato farming and yak herding. According to locals, a similar flood hit Thame around 30 years ago.

According to Solukhumbu Chief District Officer Devi Khatri Pandey, teams from the Nepal Army and Nepal Police reached the flooded area and were actively conducting search and rescue operations. The village is located at an altitude of 3,800 metres from sea level. Security personnel from Namche Bazar had trekked to the site and joined rescue operations.

“The security team has reached the site, but it will take time to determine the cause of the flood,” said DSP Ghimire. “We have lost communication with our police team; neither the telephone nor our communication equipment is working.”

Lhakpa Chhiri Sherpa, the spokesperson for Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, said the flood may have been triggered by either a glacial lake outburst flooding (GLOF) or a rupture of an artificial lake formed by a landslide in the upper reaches of the river.

Chief District Officer Pandey said that although there are rumours of a glacial lake outburst, it has not yet been confirmed. She added that the full extent of the damage was being assessed as heavy rain continued for hours in the affected area.

The damage was caused by a flooded Thame river, one of the tributaries of the Dudhkoshi river. Authorities have warned residents downstream of a flash flood.

Seven houses in the region remain at risk. Communication and electricity services in the area have been disrupted.

Meanwhile, Nepal Army personnel rescued six people from the area.

According to Brigadier General Gaurav Kumar KC, also the spokesperson for the Nepal Army, the team that reached the scene has relocated six individuals at high risk from the flood to a safe location. Spokesperson KC said the water flow in the river is now gradually decreasing.

He further warned of the looming threat of potential downstream flooding, urging residents to remain vigilant and prepared.

Immediately after the incident, the Ministry of Home Affairs, in coordination with the Defence Ministry, directed the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, and Nepal Police for search, rescue, and disaster management operations in response to the devastating flood. The ministry instructed Solukhumbu Chief District Officer Pandey to oversee and manage search and rescue operations in the flood-affected areas.

Defence Minister Manbir Rai said the ministry had promptly directed the army leadership to deploy security personnel in coordination with the home ministry in the rescue efforts.

“I have spoken with both the home minister and the acting army chief about deploying the security agencies to save people’s lives,” said Rai.

Meanwhile, the local government is preparing to provide relief to the flood victims. “A major disaster struck, and we are now preparing to provide relief to those affected,” said Mingma Chhiri Sherpa, chairman of Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, to the Post. I will visit Thame on Saturday to assess the scale of damage."

An expert studying the region for a long time said preliminary observation based on the pictures and videos of Friday’s flooding shows it doesn't look like a GLOF.

"From the pictures and videos of the flooding, it doesn't look like a glacial lake outburst," said Associate Professor Sudip Thakuri, dean of Science and Technology at the Mid-West University. "It looks like the local river was earlier blocked by a dry landslide and later it was breached and caused flooding downstream."

Thakuri did his PhD thesis on the impact of climate change on the glaciers and glacial lakes in the Everest region. According to him, the number of glaciers has been decreasing consistently. "Studies show that the number of glaciers has decreased by 15 percent in comparison to the situation 60 years ago," he said. Disappearance of glaciers upstream creates glacial lakes downstream. According to him, a study in 2012 found 625 glacial lakes but another study in 2019 showed some glaciers had dried up, and the size of glacial lakes downstream had drastically increased.

"But people are building houses downstream near rivers without studying the risk factor," Thakuri said.

(Bhanubhakta Niraula of Kantipur Television also contributed reporting from Solukhumbu)

The news has been updated.