Rescue teams in Nepal intensified efforts Monday to reach hundreds of workers feared trapped in mud-choked tunnels at hydropower projects along the border with China after catastrophic flooding last week.

The combined death toll from the disaster in Nepal and China's Tibet region has climbed past 950, with Nepal reporting 939 fatalities and China confirming 16 deaths. More than 4,400 people remain missing across both sides of the border, including nearly 600 foreign nationals.

The flooding struck on Wednesday when a glacier collapse unleashed a torrent of ice, rock, mud and debris through Himalayan valleys in Nepal's Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. The deluge damaged or destroyed multiple hydropower sites, burying tunnels and leaving 933 workers from 11 projects unaccounted for. Officials estimate about 500 of those workers are trapped underground.

Nepali authorities, backed by experts from India and China, deployed excavators, controlled blasts and search equipment to clear debris from key sites like the Trishuli 3A project. Some bodies have already been recovered from the tunnels, though hopes for additional survivors diminish with each passing hour. Nepal has rescued more than 10,000 people overall, including hundreds of foreigners.

China has attributed the glacier instability to global warming while mobilizing its own rescue personnel and aid. Families on both sides of the border continue desperate searches for loved ones, with mass burials underway for unidentified victims.

The disaster has highlighted vulnerabilities in the region's hydropower infrastructure and cross-border coordination challenges amid difficult terrain and weather.