Severe rainfall triggered landslides, flooding, and a lightning strike across Nepal on Sunday, leaving at least 44 people dead and five others missing, authorities said.
The hardest-hit area was the eastern mountain district of Illam, where 37 people died after entire villages were swept away. Six members of a single family were killed when a landslide buried their home while they slept, officials said. Heavy rain since Friday has hampered rescue operations, washing away roads and blocking access to many affected villages.
The government deployed helicopters to evacuate those needing medical attention and mobilized ground troops to move residents to safer locations. Neighboring districts also reported casualties: one person died in a landslide, three were killed by lightning, and three more perished in flooding in southern Nepal.
Authorities had issued severe rainfall warnings for eastern and central regions from Saturday through Monday, shutting down major highways and grounding domestic flights on Saturday. By Sunday, roads were partially reopened, though traffic remained heavy as hundreds of thousands returned to Kathmandu after celebrating Dashain, Nepal’s largest festival.
While some areas near rivers in the capital experienced flooding, no major damage or casualties were reported there. The government declared a national holiday until Monday due to the extreme weather.
Last year, similar monsoon-related landslides and floods killed 224 people and injured 158. The weekend’s heavy rainfall occurred at the end of Nepal’s monsoon season, which typically runs from June to mid-September.
