Monsoon floods kill more than 50 across Nepal

Floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains have killed at least 50 people in Nepal over the last two weeks, officials have said.

The extreme weather affected 36 of Nepal’s 77 districts, Ram Krishna Subedi, a spokesperson of the Home Ministry said, with nine people reported missing and infrastructure, including bridges and roads, damaged.

“The government has mobilised military and police personnel and other emergency workers to the sites. We have also ordered them to find an alternative where roads and bridges have been damaged,” the DPA news agency quoted him as saying.

Subedi said at least 20 people had been injured and authorities had distributed relief materials such as tents, mattresses and blankets to communities.

But local media reported several highways, including a major highway connecting the capital Kathmandu with the rest of the country of being obstructed due to the landslides.

The monsoon season in Nepal, which lasts from July to September, causes disastrous landslides and flooding every year, killing hundreds of people.