RESCUERS pulled survivors and helicopters lifted stranded people to safety today as Nepal and China raced to respond to catastrophic flash floods that killed more than 500 people.

Nepal’s disaster management authority said the death toll rose to 538, with police later putting it at 547 and more than 3,700 people rescued.

China’s death toll stood at five, with 558 people missing and another 977 unaccounted for in Nepal, including more than 500 foreigners in the area to work, trek or make a pilgrimage.

Nepali police issued a fresh alert after learning a dam on the Tibet side had burst, ordering rescue teams to stay on high alert.

Authorities had already warned of further flooding from a barrier lake formed after the initial floods.

Some 680 rescuers eventually reached the hardest-hit area at Gyirong by foot and raft, with some dropped by drone.

Nepalese army rescuers worked to free people trapped in a hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa, with Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet saying: “It is complicated to find the entry and exit points of the tunnel because everything has been covered by mud.

“Our first priority is rescuing the stranded people.”

The Chinese embassy in Nepal said search-and-rescue operations to find survivors of the flood are in a “critical stage” and the lake is “currently at a high water level and has begun to overflow, posing a risk of further breach.”

Scientists studying satellite images said bedrock beneath a Himalayan glacier had collapsed, triggering a rockfall of magnitude 5.2 that swelled rivers and swept away buildings and bridges across Tibet and Nepal.

Customs officer Karbir Gaire, a survivor from Timure near the Chinese border, said: “Right after the shake, I noticed a black storm coming towards us.

“We all immediately started running out, and within a few seconds, we were climbing uphill on the opposite side of our office building.

“I think those 10 or so seconds saved some of us.”

Fifteen of his colleagues remain missing.

Rajan Tamang, a New York restaurant owner, said his mother and sister were among the dead.

“My family was just waking up, and they didn’t even get any information, and suddenly this flood came,” he said.