New landslides strike western Nepal killing 10

Aug 25, 2007, 8:06 GMT

Kathmandu - At least 10 people, including seven members of the same family were killed in separate landslides in western Nepal, media reports said Saturday.

The Himalayan Times reported seven people, including four of the same family, died when their house was struck by a landslide in Pyuthan district, about 320 kilometres west of the Nepalese capital on Saturday morning.

It quoted local police officers as saying rocks and sliding mud hit the house at Arkha village as the residents slept.

One person was pulled out of the rubble alive.

In neighbouring Rolpa district, three family members, including two children aged 8 and 5 and their mother, died when their house was hit by a landslide on Friday night.

The latest deaths bring the total number of people killed in the past two days in landslides in west Nepal to at least 16.

On Friday, six people died in Gulmi district.

West Nepal has been hit by extremely heavy monsoon rains this year.

Earlier this month, large swathes of western Nepal's plains were submerged, killing dozens of people and displacing hundreds of thousands of others.

Many of the victims of the floods are still struggling to cope with the destruction, and the Nepal Red Cross Society, which is spearheading relief efforts, said it had only reached half of the more than 420,000 victims.

According to the Nepal Red Cross Society, at least 146 people died in 47 of Nepal's 75 districts in flooding earlier this month. The figures do not include the latest deaths caused by landslides.