The death toll from devastating floods and mudslides that swept through parts of Nepal and China’s Tibet region has risen to 633, while nearly 3,000 people remain missing, according to an update published by PUNCH on Saturday.

PUNCH, citing agency reports, said rescuers in both countries were continuing frantic search-and-rescue operations following a tsunami-like wall of water and debris that swept through villages and other communities across the Himalayan region.

In Nepal, the country’s disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to its missing persons list, alongside trekkers and pilgrims travelling to Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash. The development has raised concerns about the fate of workers and travellers caught in the disaster.

The scale of the destruction has left survivors struggling to come to terms with the loss of homes and loved ones. “All the settlements near the river were swept away. There is nothing left,” a survivor, Buddhi Dangol, told AFP, according to the PUNCH report.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated that as many as 93,000 people may have been affected, warning that the psychological impact of Wednesday’s disaster had been enormous and that the death toll could still rise.

Rescue efforts have also been complicated by shortages of food and water and fears of further flooding. Nepali police reportedly ordered rescuers to move to safety after receiving information that another water dam had burst on the Tibetan side.

In China, authorities temporarily suspended rescue operations in the worst-hit area of Gyirong over fears of renewed flooding, although the threat was later said to have eased. China’s state news agency, Xinhua, subsequently reported that two villagers had been rescued, as emergency teams continued efforts to locate survivors and the missing.