DEVIGHAT, Nepal (AP) — Rescue crews continued searching Thursday for hundreds of people still unaccounted for along the Nepal-China border after a catastrophic surge of water and mud, reaching several stories high, tore through communities a day earlier.

Videos from the disaster showed people fleeing as powerful floodwaters engulfed them, destroying buildings and sweeping away bridges. Police said at least 353 people had died, while more than 1,300 remained missing, among them dozens of foreign nationals and pilgrims. Hundreds more people have been forced from their homes throughout the Himalayan region.

Rescue crews were still searching Thursday for hundreds of people missing near the Nepal-China border after devastating floods and mudflows ripped through several communities.

The steep terrain and green valleys beneath the Himalayan range — which contains many of the world’s highest mountains — face a particularly high risk of floods and landslides. Climate change has contributed to increasingly rapid glacier melt and other changes in the region.

Photographs from Nepal’s badly affected Nuwakot district showed mud covering what appeared to be the second floors of buildings after the torrent swept through. Debris was left dangling from trees and power lines, vehicles were buried beneath mud and wreckage, and survivors were seen covered in mud and visibly shaken.

Nirajan Paudyal, a journalist based in Kathmandu, said he was deeply concerned about his parents and other family members living in the small village of Soley in the district.

“There is no update till now. I fear there won’t be any update,” Paudyal said.

The disaster has underscored the growing dangers facing communities in the Himalayas as extreme flooding continues to threaten populated valleys and remote mountain communities.