Nepal surveys flood wreckage as death toll reaches 200

Capital temporarily cut off from rest of country after landslides blocked highways

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Search and rescue teams in Nepal's capital picked through wrecked homes on Sept 30 after water levels receded from monsoon floods that killed at least 200 people around the Himalayan republic.

Deadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is making them worse. Entire neighbourhoods in Kathmandu were inundated after the heaviest rain in more than two decades, with the capital temporarily cut off from the rest of Nepal after landslides blocked highways. “According to the latest figures, 200 have died, 127 are injured and 26 are still missing,” Home Ministry spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari told AFP.

Police said at least 35 of those killed were buried alive when earth from a landslide careened onto vehicles on a highway south of Kathmandu.

Mr Kumar Tamang, who lives in a slum area by a riverbank, told AFP that he and his family had to flee after midnight on Sept 28 as water rushed into his shack.