A horrifying video showing a wall of floodwater sweeping through Gyirong Port on the Tibet-Nepal border has become a rare visual record of the scale of destruction in China-controlled Tibet. The footage showed hundreds of people running for safety as floodwaters and debris overwhelmed buildings at the key border crossing.The video, which rapidly spread online, was subsequently removed from Chinese social media platforms. Reports also indicate that other footage and witness accounts from the disaster zone have disappeared from the internet, raising concerns over restrictions on information coming out of Tibet.China has officially reported five deaths and 558 people missing in Tibet’s Gyirong County, including 260 foreign nationals. However, details about the affected settlements, victims and survivors remain limited in publicly available Chinese reporting.While Nepal shows the horror — entire villages & roads swept away — #CCP censors the Tibetan side, refuses to name Tibet, hides deaths & stops locals from rescuing their own. Shame.#FreeTibet #XiJinping #CCPLies #TibetFloods #NepalFlooding #UN #CTA https://t.co/DoZjioWtRa— Tibet People 🇺🇦 (@TibetPeople) August 27, 2026The information gap has also made independent reporting from the Tibetan side difficult. Foreign journalists require government permission to enter the region, while residents face restrictions on communicating freely with outside media. Human Rights Watch has previously documented extensive surveillance and restrictions on access to Tibet.Some Chinese state-run media outlets initially published footage and interviews with witnesses from affected areas, but reports said some of those stories were later removed. The disappearance of such material has fuelled allegations that authorities are tightly controlling information about the disaster.After a large number of flood on-site videos were posted in WeChat groups, related content is being deleted and censored across the entire internet.The CCP is not only refusing to provide disaster relief but is also censoring, deleting, and banning accounts for videos of… https://t.co/A5j637KeXn— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动 (@TGTM_Official) August 27, 2026Ryan Fioresi of the International Campaign for Tibet said the situation meant “only the Chinese government controls the information flow”, warning that residents may be reluctant to share information about people trapped or areas suffering the worst damage.China’s official coverage has instead largely highlighted rescue operations, showing emergency teams reaching difficult terrain and restoring damaged infrastructure. Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting on rescue and relief efforts and called for maximum efforts to locate missing people, including Chinese and foreign nationals. Premier Li Qiang also visited the affected region. State-run Xinhua quoted Li as saying Xi was “deeply concerned” about people in the disaster-hit areas, reports India Today.The contrast with Nepal has been stark. Nepalese authorities have allowed journalists to travel to affected areas, speak with survivors and document the devastation, although access remains difficult because roads and bridges have been destroyed.The floods, believed to have been triggered by a glacial collapse and subsequent surge of water and debris, have killed hundreds in Nepal and left thousands missing across the Nepal-Tibet border region.with inputs from Reuters, AP