More than 160 people have lost their lives in Nepal and northern India since Monday after late monsoon rains triggered flash floods and landslides across the Himalayan region, authorities said.
At least 99 people are confirmed dead and 40 other people have been missing as of Thursday noon, Nepal police spokesperson Basanta Bahadur Kunwar told dpa.
Teams are still carrying out the search, rescue and relocation works in the affected areas, especially in the country's eastern and western region which have been receiving unusually heavy rainfalls this week, according to Phanindra Mani Pokharel, spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
"It might take some more time to find all bodies presumed to be buried in landslides in Bajhang district. In Panchthar and a few other districts, works are underway to rescue, relocate families and address their immediate needs," Pokharel told dpa.
Parts of Nepal continued to receive rains for the fourth day on Thursday, but the authorities say that the weather is expected to gradually improve in the coming days.
The rains have damaged several roads, bridges, hydropower plants and inundated thousands of hectares of agricultural land, according to media reports.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's government has expressed its commitment to expedite the search-and-rescue works, and provide succour and free treatment to the affected people.
The death toll in floods and landslides in the Indian hill state of Uttarakhand had risen to 64 and 11 people were still missing, Home Minister Amit Shah told reporters after an aerial survey of rain-battered areas.
Rescue and relief operations were continuing and the army was assisting in restoring bridges and roads washed away.
People were being evacuated in landslide-prone areas though the rains had stopped, local official Dhiraj Singh Garbiyal said.
Nepal and India's Himalayan regions are prone to natural disasters with their swift flowing rivers and hilly terrain.
