13 Killed, 10 Missing After Landslides Hit Nepal

GUWAHATI: In a tragic incident, at least 13 persons have been killed and 10 others missing after landslides hit various parts of Achham district in Nepal on Saturday.

According to reports, Deputy Chief District Officer Dipesh Rijal was quoted as saying, "At least 13 dead, 10 missing and 10 rescued from various parts of Achham District in far West Nepal, due to landslides."

Nepal has been hit by an incessant downpour which has resulted in floods and landslides, the reports said..

In the wake of the calamity, Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand has ordered the deployment of helicopters for search and rescue operations.

The incessant rainfall led to flooding of the Lasku and Mahakali Rivers, which swept away many houses and two bridges.

Rescuers had pulled the dead and injured from the silt-covered wreckage of five houses buried under mud in Achham, about 450 km (281 miles) west of the capital city of Kathmandu, a police spokesperson said.

Officials also said that the injured had been rushed to a nearby hospital.

Nepal has been recording many casualties attributed to flooding and landslide disasters during the monsoon season annually.

Another devastating incident that occurred was the earthquake in Nepal on April 25, 2015. About 9,000 people were killed, many thousands more were injured, and more than 600,000 structures in Kathmandu and other nearby towns were either damaged or destroyed. The earthquake of 7.9 magnitudes affected the areas of central and eastern Nepal, much of the Ganges River plain in northern India, and northwestern Bangladesh, as well as in the southern parts of the Plateau of Tibet and western Bhutan On May 12 a magnitude-7.3 aftershock struck some 76 km (47 miles) east-northeast of Kathmandu, killing more than 100 people and injuring nearly 1,900.

The earthquake and its aftershocks were the results of thrust faulting (i.e., compression-driven fracturing) in the Indus-Yarlung suture zone, a thin east-west region spanning roughly the length of the Himalayan ranges. The epicenter was on the border of Dolakha and Sindhupalchowk, two districts of Nepal. As such, it is considered to be an aftershock of the April quake. It struck at a depth of 18.5 km. At least 153 people were killed by the earthquake and more than 3,200 people were injured, primarily in mountain regions of the northeast.

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