Heavy rains kill at least 47 in Nepal, block roads

Members of Nepal Army help people retrieve their belongings to a safe area at a flooded street along the bank of overflowing Bagmati River following heavy rains, in Kathmandu, Nepal. (REUTERS)

Heavy rains triggered landslides and flash floods blocking roads, washing away bridges and killing at least 47 people since Friday in Nepal, officials said on Sunday.

Thirty-five people were killed in separate landslides in the Ilam district in the east bordering India, said Kalidas Dhauboji, a spokesperson for the Armed Police Force.

Nine people were missing after being washed away by floods and three others were killed in lightning strikes elsewhere in Nepal, he added.

“Rescue efforts for the missing persons are going on,” said Shanti Mahat, a National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority spokesperson in Nepal.

Across the border in the eastern Indian hill region of Darjeeling in West Bengal, at least seven people were killed due to landslides following heavy rainfall, according to local media reports.

"Seven dead bodies have already been recovered from the debris. We have information about two more people. Work is being done to recover their bodies too," Abhishek Roy, a Darjeeling district police official said on Sunday, according to a post from Indian news agency ANI on social media platform X.

Several highways have been blocked by landslides and washed away by floods, stranding hundreds of passengers, authorities said.

"Domestic flights are largely disrupted but international flights are operating normally,” said Rinji Sherpa, a spokesperson for Kathmandu airport, Nepal's biggest international gateway.

In southeastern Nepal, the Koshi River, which causes deadly floods in the eastern Indian state of Bihar almost every year, was flowing above the danger level, a district official said.

Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, district governor of Sunsari district, said all 56 sluice gates of the Koshi Barrage had been opened to drain out water compared with about 10 to 12 during a normal situation, adding that authorities had banned vehicular traffic on the bridge.

In hill-ringed Kathmandu, several rivers have flooded roads and inundated many houses, cutting the temple-studded capital off from the rest of the country by road.

Hundreds of people die every year in landslides and flash floods that are common in mostly mountainous Nepal during the monsoon season, which normally starts in mid-June and continues through mid-September.

Weather officials said rains were likely to lash the Himalayan nation until Monday and authorities said they were taking “maximum care and precautions” to help people affected by the disaster.