Five more Australians found safe after Nepal floods as death toll passes 1,000

Five Australians have been confirmed safe and well in the Nepal-Tibet region following devastating flooding. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has contacted the Australians' families and next of kin.

In light of this, DFAT has revised the number of Australians still unaccounted for in the region downward from 43 to 38.

It follows news on Tuesday that officials were in contact with an Australian in Tibet, after another Australian, Cara Severino, was located safely on the weekend.

Australian aid supplies, which departed earlier this week, are arriving into Nepal this morning.

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The death toll from devastating Himalayan glacial floods crossed the grim 1,000 mark on Tuesday, as Chinese and Nepali teams searched for survivors including dozens feared trapped in hydropower tunnels.

Nearly 4,500 people are missing after the gigantic wave of freezing water, rocks and debris triggered by a high-altitude glacial collapse roared downstream on Wednesday, wiping out entire settlements and carving a path of destruction across Nepal.

Nepali rescue teams are digging, drilling and blasting through debris in a desperate race against time to free around 100 hydropower workers believed trapped in multiple tunnels.

So far, rescuers have recovered only bodies from tunnels blocked by sludge, and hopes of finding survivors are fading.

Excavators worked into the night on Tuesday, but an army update noted that "a large amount of water started flowing" into a hole they were digging, forcing them to start a new opening.

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah has called the catastrophe "unimaginable and heartbreaking".

With mortuaries overflowing in Nepal, authorities have begun burying hundreds of unidentified bodies after DNA sampling.

At least 17 bodies have also been pulled from rivers downstream in India.

Police, using a drone to search for survivors, said on Tuesday that they had located 24 corpses inside a single house in Nuwakot district.