A police officer stationed at Gyirong Port on the China-Nepal border directed civilians away from a police station moments before a catastrophic mudslide struck, in footage that circulated widely across Chinese social media over the weekend.
State broadcaster CCTV named the officer as Huang Peng, 34, and reported that he rushed into a nearby tourist service centre to warn those inside to evacuate. The clip shows him guiding people from the police station shortly before the slide reached the post.
Gyirong Port sits in the Tibet Autonomous Region and serves as a main crossing point between China and Nepal. The disaster forms part of a wider flooding emergency that has struck both sides of the Himalayan frontier this monsoon season, with earlier reports placing the death toll across the region in the dozens and hundreds recorded as missing.
On the Nepali side, authorities have appealed for technical assistance and billions of dollars to fund recovery, as continued bad weather hampers rescue teams working through mud and blocked roads. Damaged infrastructure near the border has slowed the movement of relief personnel and equipment.
The flooding follows a season of heavy monsoon rains that triggered landslides and swelled rivers along the frontier. Earlier this week, officials reported that the combined toll had climbed as the search for missing residents and tourists continued, a pattern detailed in coverage of the rising casualty figures along the Nepal-Tibet border.
Border regions in this part of Tibet lie in mountainous terrain prone to seasonal flash floods and debris flows, conditions that complicate evacuation and rescue operations when heavy rain arrives.
The viral footage drew attention online for the officer’s actions in the minutes before the mudslide reached the station. Chinese authorities have not released a full account of casualties at the port itself.
Rescue and recovery work on both sides of the border is expected to continue as weather conditions permit, with Nepal awaiting confirmation of external technical and financial support for the affected districts.