At least 49 people have died and dozens of others are missing in Nepal due to severe flooding and landslides caused by late monsoon rains, authorities said.
At least 36 people have been missing in various regions of the Himalayan country since late Friday, according to Nepalese police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki.
He said a total of 34 people were injured. “We have brought to safety 1,053 people affected by floods and landslides in the Kathmandu Valley, but we are still waiting for data from the rest of the country,” Karki told dpa.
Senior officials held an emergency meeting on Saturday to assess the situation and intensify search, rescue and rehabilitation efforts.
The rains, which started on Thursday, have caused extensive damage to infrastructure, damaging roads and bridges and disrupting domestic flights. Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority has suspended several domestic flights due to rain and poor visibility. Vehicular movement on major highways is stopped at night due to the risk of landslides.
In Kathmandu, swollen rivers have flooded thousands of homes, and major roads into the capital are still blocked by landslides. Authorities have forecast further rainfall this week, prompting flood warnings for communities near major rivers.
Water levels in the Koshi and Gandak rivers exceed danger levels, posing a significant risk of flooding and serious damage in Nepal and the neighboring Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, an annual problem.
Nepal’s mountainous terrain and numerous rivers make the country particularly vulnerable to natural disasters.
