At least 33 people, including 13 women, were today killed and over 20 others reported missing after landslides triggered by torrential rains swept away houses across Nepal, already devastated due to a massive temblor in April and the subsequent aftershocks.
Western Nepal, in particular, is badly hit by landslide triggered by the incessant rain for the past few days.
Twenty-three people were killed in Kaski district, 250 km west of Kathmandu, near the famous tourist spot Pokhara as flood triggered by incessant rain buried houses, according to Home Ministry spokesperson Laxmi Dhakal.
Those killed include 11 women. Twenty others are missing in a separate incident of landslide in Lumle, spokesperson said.
Similarly, five persons including two women were killed in the landslide in Bhadaure village of the district.
Five persons were killed due to the landslides elsewhere.
Twelve people have gone missing in Bhadauare and three missing in Lumle in the district.
Ten houses were completely swept away by the landslide.
Eighteen people who sustained injuries in the incident have been rescued from various parts of the district.
Pokhara-Baglung Highway has also been damaged by the landslide, the officials said.
Nepal Army and Nepal Police personnel have been mobilised to carry out rescue works in the affected areas.
Nepal Army headquarters in Kathmandu has also sent a helicopter in the incident sites to help in the rescue operations.
In Muna and Muduni villages of Myagdi district, 350 km west of Kathmandu a child and an adult were killed and five others went missing in separate incidents of landslide, police said.
Scores of people die every year from flooding and landslides during the monsoon season in Nepal.
A powerful temblor on April 25 caused widespread destruction and killed nearly 9,000 people in the Himalayan nation.
