(Bhâratpur) Au moins 63 personnes sont portées disparues dans le centre du Népal après un glissement de terrain causé par la mousson qui a emporté vendredi deux autocars dans une rivière, ont indiqué les autorités du pays himalayen.
Des dizaines de sauveteurs ont ratissé le site de l’accident à la recherche de survivants dans le district central de Chitwan, avant que les opérations ne soient suspendues pour la nuit. Elles reprendront « demain matin », a indiqué Kumar Neupane, un porte-parole de la police.
« Deux autocars, l’un avec 24 passagers et l’autre avec 42 passagers, ont été emportés par un glissement de terrain dans la rivière Trishuli », a déclaré à l’AFP un responsable de l’administration locale, Khimananda Bhusal.
« Nous ne sommes pas sûrs du nombre total de personnes, car les autocars ont pu prendre d’autres [passagers] “on the road,” he acknowledged. “The river has risen and no one else has been found yet.”
The force of the landslide pushed the buses against concrete barriers and down a steep embankment into the river, at least 30 metres from the road. Rescue teams on rafts gathered on the river bank struggled to wade through the muddy water due to strong currents made worse by the rains.
PHOTO RAJESH GHIMIRE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The accident occurred on the road linking the towns of Narayanghat and Mugling, about 100 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu.
Several hours after the search began, they had still found no trace of the vehicles or their occupants.
“My son, my daughter, my two grandchildren have disappeared […] “I swallowed water, but I managed to swim and then grab a branch,” Jugeshwor Rays Yadav, 45, one of the three survivors, told AFP.
The accident happened on the road between the towns of Narayanghat and Mugling, about 100 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu, early Friday around 3:30 a.m. (5:45 p.m. EST Thursday). One bus was travelling from Kathmandu to Gaur in Rautahat district in southern Nepal, and the other was on its way to Kathmandu from Birgunj in the south of the country.
A coach driver was killed in a separate accident on the same road after a rock hit his vehicle. He died while being treated in hospital.
PHOTO RAJESH GHIMIRE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Two coaches, one with 24 passengers and the other with 42 passengers, were swept into the river by the landslide.
Stronger monsoon
Chief Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed his shock in a message on X. “I direct all government agencies, including the central administration, to effectively search and rescue the passengers,” he said.
Fatal accidents are relatively common in the Himalayan country, due in part to poor road conditions and poorly maintained vehicles. According to government figures, nearly 2,400 people died on Nepal’s roads in the 12 months to April. Some 12 people were killed and 24 injured in an accident in January when a bus travelling from Nepalgunj to Kathmandu fell into a river.
PHOTO YUNISH GURUNG, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damaged houses, knocked down by landslides, on the outskirts of Pokhara, Nepal.
Roads are more dangerous during the monsoon season, as the rains cause landslides and flooding. The monsoon rains that fall across South Asia from June to September provide a respite from the summer heat and are essential for replenishing water supplies, but they also cause widespread death and destruction.
Rainfall is often unpredictable and varies widely in amount, but scientists say climate change is making the monsoon even stronger and more erratic. Floods, landslides and lightning have killed 88 people across the country this year since the monsoon began in June, according to police figures.