By Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – A 35-year-old woman and her three children, aged between four and 11, were killed in western Nepal when heavy rains brought down their mud-and-stone house early on Tuesday, police said.
The poor Himalayan nation has recorded 198 deaths due to landslides and floods triggered by pre-monsoon and monsoon rains since late May, while in neighbouring India, 134 people have died in the states of Assam and Bihar, though flood waters have now receded in most places.
The rainy season typically ends in September in South Asia.
Nepal police official Janak Raj Pandey said that five other members of the family, including the woman’s husband and her parents, survived the incident in Doti, 440 km (276 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu.
“The house collapsed while the family was asleep following incessant rains,” Pandey told Reuters.
Large swathes of farm land and villages have been submerged in the southern plains bordering India, while landslides or floods have upended roads and swept away bridges across the country of 30 million people.
In Assam, floods have killed 110 people and affected 5.7 million since May, though only 73 people remained in government shelters as of Tuesday, a state bulletin said.
In Bihar, 24 people have died so far and 11,849 continue to stay in relief camps, though a state official said the situation was improving.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu, Jatin Dash in Bhubaneswar and Zarir Hussain in Guwahati;Editing by Bernadette Baum)
