At least 18 people have died and more than 200 are missing in the Himalayas after part of a glacier broke away, triggering a huge flood – and one expert says the world should brace for more incidents like this amid continuing climate change. 

Speaking to CGTN Europe, Duncan Quincey who is an associate professor of geomorphology at the University of Leeds, says the impact on glaciers from rising global temperatures will be "profound."

Quincey says the Himalayas catastrophe may have been caused by an avalanche following an ice storm. The ensuing floodwater burst open a dam, sending a torrent of water, rock and dust down a mountain valley in the state of Uttarakhand.

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He added that the effect on glaciers from climate change is clearly visible around the world.

"The impacts are there to see ... they're melting at an increasingly fast rate. The latest reports suggest the doubling of that rate of mass lost within the last 40 years."

The fear is that global warming will continue to put mountainous areas under threat because dams, which are designed to keep water back, could fill and overflow if temperatures continue to rise and melt ice.

He added: "Many of the populations who are living in dam-stream areas of glaciers are some of the most challenged in the world because they don't have the economic resources to rebuild and recover from these sorts of events."