Chinese President Xi Jinping said rescue operations faced "extreme difficulties" after a deadly mudslide struck the Himalayas near the border with Nepal, and ordered faster surveys of glaciers and glacial lakes across the Tibetan Plateau. Xi told top officials at a Politburo meeting on Friday that China should step up monitoring of a barrier lake and nearby mountains to prevent further disasters, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The Communist Party also ordered stronger monitoring and early-warning systems to improve authorities' ability to identify linked disaster risks.

The mudslide struck a remote area near the China-Nepal border, where terrain and weather have complicated relief efforts. Authorities are racing to prevent secondary disasters from the barrier lake, which formed when landslide debris blocked a river.