At least 13 missing in Nepal after landslide

Kathmandu, Oct 10 (EFE).- At least 13 people were swept away by a landslide during a funeral ceremony in Nepal and remain missing, officials said on Monday, while at least four people were killed and dozens of families were displaced elsewhere in separate rain-related incidents.

“A powerful landslide occurred and it swept away 13 people in the Karnali river during a cremation,” Madhan Prasad Shrestha, the police superintendent for western Nepal’s Karnali province, told EFE.

Shretha said that the incident took place on Sunday evening in the city of Ranchli, where hundreds of people had gathered for the funeral of a local resident.

“The search and rescue efforts are ongoing,” the officer said.

Meanwhile heavy rains in the region resulted in another landslide that buried a building and killed at least four people.

Around a dozen people were also reported missing in several rain-related incidents in the Humla district of the Karnali region.

Shrestha said that around 150 families had been displaced due to heavy rain in recent days.

According to latest data by the interior ministry, over 175 people have been killed over the past year in Nepal due to floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains, which usually lash the country between June and September.

A sizable part of the Nepal’s population lives in mountainous areas susceptible to these kind of disasters.

Last year the Himalayan nation witnessed record rains in October – unusual for the month – which killed more than 100 people and caused widespread damage to the agricultural sector, valued at around $100 million. EFE

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