Floods, landslides kill 48 in Nepal

Major flooding and landslides caused by monsoon rains in Nepal have killed 48 people in the past two weeks, with 13 others missing after being swept away by a river, officials said Thursday.

"There was heavy rainfall during the end of the monsoon which caused landslides and flooding in western parts of the country," disaster management official Pradip Kumar Koirala told AFP.

"We are currently carrying out rescue and relief-distribution operations in those areas by mobilising security forces and other agencies as the weather situation has improved there."

In the remote village of Rachuli in Karnali province, 13 people on their way to a funeral were washed away by the Tila River on Sunday, local official Saroj Adhikari told AFP.

"The search operation is still ongoing. But the hope is very low now," he said.

Nearly 700 foreign and domestic trekkers were stranded for about 48 hours earlier this week in mountainous districts in western Nepal but most were later rescued or managed to travel onwards.

"There are still some trekkers stranded... We are assessing the numbers to rescue them," said Binod Sapkota from the Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal.

Koirala said the government had mobilised excavators and engineers to clear the debris and mud blocking roads, and put helicopters on standby mode for rescues.

The annual monsoon brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rain, but it also brings death and destruction, with nearly 1,700 people killed in Pakistan this year.

The rainfall is hard to forecast and varies considerably, but scientists believe climate change is making the monsoon more powerful and more erratic.

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