Kathmandu: At least nine people, including three children, were killed when landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in western Nepal, an official said on June 29. A landslide swept away five members of a family as they were sleeping in their house in Malika village in Gulmi district, about 250 kilometres (156 miles) west of Kathmandu, according to Dizan Bhattarai, a spokesman for the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Management Authority. “The bodies of all five have been recovered,” Bhattarai told Reuters, adding that the family included two children.
In neighbouring Syangja district, a woman and her three-year-old daughter died in a landslide that swept away their house, while two people were killed in another landslide in Baglung district bordering Gulmi. Landslides, floods and lightning strikes have killed at least 35 people in Nepal since the annual monsoon rains began in mid-June. The rains usually continue until mid-September. Landslides and flash floods are common in mainly mountainous Nepal during the monsoon season and kill hundreds of people each year.
