Nepal | At least 14 dead in floods and landslides

(Kathmandu) Torrential rains, triggering flash floods and landslides, have killed at least 14 people in Nepal and nine people are missing, police said Sunday.

Floods in neighbouring India and Bangladesh also caused widespread damage and affected millions of people.

“The police are working with other agencies and local residents to trace the missing people,” police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP.

Nepalese authorities have warned of fresh flash floods in several rivers after heavy rainfall since Thursday. Floods have been reported in several low-lying districts bordering India.

Last month, 14 people were killed in the Himalayan country when violent storms caused landslides, lightning and flooding.

In India, floods in the northeastern state of Assam have killed six people in the past 24 hours, the disaster management authority said on Sunday, bringing the death toll from torrential rains in the country to 58 since mid-May.

In Bangladesh, a low-lying country downstream from India, more than two million people have been affected by the floods, the disaster management agency said. Much of the country is made up of deltas, with the Himalayan rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra winding their way to the sea after flowing through India.

The June-September monsoons cause death and destruction across South Asia each year, but in recent years the number of deadly floods and landslides has increased.

Experts say climate change and road construction are exacerbating the problem.