More than 193 people dead in Nepal as capital records highest rainfall in 50 years

Major floods and landslides in Nepal have killed at least 193 people and left over 100 injured as rescuers continued to recover more bodies on Sunday.

Three days of relentless rainfall have inundated the Himalayan country, causing widespread flash floods.

The victims included a pregnant woman and a four-year-old girl, who died when a house collapsed under a landslide in the city Bhaktapur, to the east of Kathmandu, state media reported on Saturday.

Many of the victims were killed in the capital Kathmandu, which was among the hardest hit after the floods. Residents say they “jumped from one roof to another” to escape rising waters.

The capital remained cut off with three highways, including the key Prithvi highway that connects the city to the rest of the country, blocked by landslides.

Six players from a football academy were among 64 others who went missing after being reportedly caught in a landslide.

“Search efforts are currently underway... the other players who were at the same location have been moved to a secure area,” the academy said.

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The rainfall was expected to continue until Tuesday. However, a slight improvement in weather on Sunday allowed rescue, recovery and clean-up efforts to make progress.

"There may be some isolated showers, but heavy rains are unlikely," Govinda Jha, a weather forecaster in the capital, told Reuters.

Rivers remained swollen and there is still a threat of fresh flooding. Four people were washed away by the Nakkhu River in the southern Kathmandu valley.

“For hours, they kept on pleading for help,” Jitendra Bhandari, an eyewitness, told the BBC. “We could do nothing.”

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The death toll was expected to rise as reports come in from villages across the mountainous country.

Large swathes of eastern and central Nepal have been inundated due to incessant rain since Friday that caused several rivers to swell.

Authorities announced the closure of schools and colleges in the Himalayan nation for the next three days as students and their parents faced difficulties due to damaged infrastructure.

Flights were delayed or cancelled, and phone and power lines were damaged due to flooding.

"We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the affected areas for three days," said Lakshmi Bhattarai, a spokesperson for the education ministry.

Some parts of the capital reported rain of up to 322.2mm, pushing the level of its main Bagmati river up 2.2m past the danger mark. This was reportedly the highest rainfall recorded in the capital since 1970.

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Police officers and soldiers were assisting with rescue efforts, while heavy equipment was used to clear the landslides from the roads.

"I have never before seen flooding on this scale in Kathmandu," said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an environmental risk official at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

The centre urged the government and city planners to "urgently" step up investment in, and plans for, infrastructure, such as underground stormwater and sewage systems, both of the "grey", or engineered kind, and "green", or nature-based type.

South Asia usually experiences the monsoon between mid-June to mid-September. This year, though, heavy rains have continued until the end of September, leaving several rivers across the region swollen for longer than usual, increasing risks of flooding.

Last week dozens of people, most of them children, drowned in India’s Bihar state during a festival. Earlier rainfall also brought the Indian financial capital Mumbai to a standstill.

Meteorologists say the heavy rainfall in the region was caused by excess moisture over the Bay of Bengal in the east and the Arabian Sea in the west, combined with a low-pressure system across the region.