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Landslide in Nepal Leaves at Least 8 Dead

  • Landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Nepal have engulfed scores of homes, killing eight people and leaving five missing. (Photo: Reuters)

    Landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Nepal have engulfed scores of homes, killing eight people and leaving five missing. (Photo: Reuters)

Published 2 August 2014
Opinion

The mountainous and heavily populated region of the Himalayan foothills has long suffered landslides and river flooding during the monsoon, and on Friday many towns in east Kathmandu were affected.

A huge landslide has killed at least eight people in the Sindhupalchowk district, 120km east of Kathmandu in Nepal.

​The landslide also puts several other villages at risk of flash flooding and being forced to move to higher ground.

The death toll is expected to rise, as there are several people who are unaccounted for. 

Police official Arun Chetri told the press that rescuers expected the death toll to rise as many homes were buried by the landslide or submerged by the rising water.

The exact number of people still missing could not be determined, Chetri said.

The Sunkoshi river was totally blocked and the water was going everywhere in the village including the Araniko Highway that connects Kathmandu with Tibet.

People are being evacuated from the area and army helicopters have been deployed.

Landslides are common in the mountains of Nepal during the rainy season from June to September.

The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has previously said that melting glaciers due to global warming that cause events like this in the region, threatened millions of mountain-dwellers as well as more than one billion people living in the basins of the ten major Asian rivers that originate there. 

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