'High risk' of lake bursting and causing second flood, warns China

China has warned determination is simply a "high risk" that a water body formed after a landslide adjacent the Nepal‑Tibet border may burst, causing a second flood downstream. The warning follows Wednesday’s deadly flash flood in the same area, which scientists say was triggered by the collapse of a glacier into a river. As of Friday morning, an estimated 2.5 billion cubic metres of water had accumulated at the obstruction lake, according to state broadcaster CCTV. An obstruction lake is a body of water created when debris dams a river. Officials said that 3 billion cubic metres of water are expected to flow into the lake between Thursday and Saturday, posing a "high hazard of breach". The obstruction lake, which formed at the confluence of the Chhochen Khola and Purepu Tsangpo rivers, has already started to overflow, China’s Ministry of Water Resources reported. The region has also experienced heavy rain. Engineering teams have been dispatched to monitor the lake’s water levels and atmospheric conditions. A CCTV report on Friday morning said most Chinese emergency services were stranded at a settlement about 7 km (4 miles) from Gyirong Port, the major overland crossing linking Nepal and China that was hit by Wednesday’s massive flood. Because the obstruction lake was "overflowing non‑stop", further floods or debris flows remain possible. Due to these risks, search and rescue operations were suspended near the Nepal‑Tibet border, according to the report.