Landslides triggered by heavy rain on Saturday killed at least nine people, including an entire family, as they slept in Nepal’s mountainous districts, officials said.
According to Nepal’s National Disaster Rescue and Reduction Management Authority, the landslides have buried homes in three separate areas in the mountainous region of the country, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu.
Five members of the same family were killed when their house was engulfed by a landslide while they were sleeping in Malika village in Gulmi district. The victims included a couple, their daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, including an eight-month-old girl.
Two more people were killed in neighboring Baglung district and another two in Syangja district, officials said.
The monsoon season that brings heavy rains in Nepal started earlier this month. It generally causes landslides in the mountainous areas covering most of this Himalayan country, causing deaths and damage until September.
In 2015 a landslide caused by heavy rainfall Six villages in Nepal’s mountainous northeast have been buried, and at least 15 people sleeping in the houses are believed to have died, officials said. The landslide occurred overnight in Taplejung district, about 500 kilometers east of the capital Kathmandu, government administrator Surendra Bhattarai said.
In 2002, landslides occurred in northeastern Nepal 32 people killed.
