Nepalese politician accuses Beijing of lack of transparency and questions what ‘they are trying to hide’
China has censored footage of the floods in Nepal and Tibet.
Beijing authorities removed footage of the moment people fled before a wall of mud swept through the Gyirong border crossing.
Only a still from the footage appeared in Chinese state media coverage.
The Chinese public has been largely reliant on state media for information, with official reports focusing on rescue efforts while providing little detail about the extent of the destruction.
On Saturday, state media said 554 people were missing on the Chinese side of the border and seven had been confirmed dead.
In Nepal, more than 620 people have been confirmed dead and thousands more remain missing.
Nepalese authorities have published lists of the missing, including foreign nationals.
Foreign journalists face severe restrictions on travelling to Tibet or interviewing people in the region by telephone, making it difficult to assess independently the devastation on the Chinese side.
Rajendra Bajgain, a former member of the Nepalese parliament, accused Beijing of a lack of transparency and questioned “what they are trying to hide” within its region.
“China should open the border to allow Nepalese rescuers to search for our missing people and to investigate what happened and monitor the glaciers,” Mr Bajgain told The Telegraph.
Mr Bajgain added: “Instead, China is preventing our people from crossing into its territory, even as families are still waiting for their loved ones to be found.
“Now we are being told that China is deleting footage of flooding. It raises very serious questions about what they are trying to hide. Removing evidence does not help establish the truth; it prevents people from asking legitimate questions.
“First we were told the disaster was caused by an earthquake. That explanation has now been discarded. By deleting footage, China is making it harder to establish what really happened.”
Chinese state media footage released on Saturday showed more than 50 rescue workers combing through rubble in the disaster zone looking for signs of life.
The first rescue team to reach the Gyirong border crossing complex on Friday afternoon found little more than ruins, according to state media.
Xinhua, China’s state news agency, said dangerous conditions at the main disaster zone, compounded by severed roads and communications, continued to hamper relief efforts.
In Nepal, army rescue teams attempted to reach about 100 people trapped inside a hydropower tunnel, using drilling equipment to clear the entrance.
“The government has been continuing efforts... to rescue people trapped inside the tunnel of the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project in Rasuwa,” the office of Nepal’s prime minister said in a statement.
“Work to clear the tunnel entrance has been intensified since early Saturday morning,” it added.
Neighbouring India has sent a specialist tunnel rescue team, including so-called “rat-hole” miners, to assist with the operation.
The miners are trained to crawl through narrow spaces and have experience carrying out rescues in difficult Himalayan tunnel systems.
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Wednesday’s catastrophic flooding has affected as many as 93,000 people in Nepal, the Red Cross said.
Entire communities have been swept away, leaving families homeless or sheltering in temporary facilities.
“Multiple bridges have been washed away and major roads disrupted, leaving some of the worst-affected communities extremely difficult to reach,” the Red Cross said.
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