Monsoon rains kill 17 in Nepal, 11 in India

At least 17 people have been killed across Nepal after torrential monsoon rains induced floods and landslides, officials said yesterday. In neighbouring northeastern India the death toll rose to 11, with six dead in Assam and another five in Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.

Heavy rains since Thursday have hit several districts in Nepal, especially in the country’s eastern region and the southern plains. According to figures released by Nepal’s police, a further seven people have been injured and seven others reported missing. Three were killed when a wall collapsed in the capital Kathmandu. “Local authorities and our security officials are all working to rescue people and bring them to safety.

Helicopters are on standby if needed,” Home Ministry official Umakanta Adhikari said. Nepal’s weather department warned Thursday that heavy rains were expected to continue for two days, and advised people to stay alert. Nearly 150 people died last year in Nepal during the rainy season, which typically begins in late June and lasts until the end of August.

Plane skids off runway

Nepal’s only international airport was closed yesterday after a plane skidded off the recently repaired runway, injuring two people, officials said. The Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500, arriving into Kathmandu from southern Nepal with 66 passengers, skidded about 15 metres (yards) into the grass. “Our teams are working to remove the plane and reopen the airport,” the airport’s general manager Raj Kumar Chettri said.

Chettri said that removing the Franco-Italian-made turboprop plane was taking a long time because heavy rain has made the area muddy. Authorities took 11 hours to remove a domestic aircraft that suffered a similar runway excursion in September last year, months after a Malaysian jet with 139 people on board had aborted its takeoff and skidded off the runway.

In the northeastern Indian state of Assam monsoon floods have now inundated 21 districts, affecting thousands, officials said Friday. In Bangladesh aid groups were providing rations to Rohingya refugees in the southeast of the country with the UN World Food Programme saying Friday that two people including a child had died.