KATHMANDU, Nepal — The death toll from a catastrophic flash flood that struck the Nepal-Tibet border has risen to 162, with more than 500 tourists, including dozens of Americans, Britons, Australians and Ukrainians, still unaccounted for nearly 24 hours after the disaster began, Nepali police said Thursday.

Nepali police confirmed the updated death toll in a statement, saying 64 bodies were found in downstream areas of Chitwan district, while another 26 were recovered in Nawalparasi East. Twenty-eight police officers remain among the hundreds still unaccounted for, according to the statement. Chitwan, a tourism hotspot known for its jungle safaris, is one of several municipalities placed on high alert as floodwaters continue to rise.

On the Tibetan side of the shared border, the number of people missing in the Gyirong county mudslide disaster has climbed to 558, China's state broadcaster CCTV reported Thursday morning, including 260 foreign nationals. The death toll in Tibet remained at three as of that report. Gyirong serves as the main crossing point for tourists and traffic between China and Nepal.

Investigators have revised their understanding of what triggered the disaster. Nepali authorities initially believed an earthquake had caused the flash flooding, but the U.S. Geological Survey has since determined otherwise. "Additional analysis of long period seismic waves indicate that the seismic energy was instead generated by a landslide," the USGS said. Officials with Nepal's department of meteorology and hydrology told the BBC that a massive chunk of ice may have collapsed from a........

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