More than 3,000 security personnel were deployed to assist rescue efforts with helicopters and motorboats. / Photo: AFP
Residents of Nepal's flood-hit capital returned to their mud-caked homes to survey the wreckage of devastating floods that have killed at least 170 people across the Himalayan republic.
Nepal's Home Ministry said on Sunday that 170 people had been killed across the country with another 42 still missing.
Ministry spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari said that bulldozers were being used to clear several highways that had been blocked by debris, cutting Kathmandu off from the rest of the country.
"More than 3,000 people have been rescued," he added.
At least 35 of those killed were aboard three vehicles and were buried alive when earth from a landslide careened into a highway south of Kathmandu, Nepal Police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki said.
Entire neighbourhoods in Kathmandu were inundated over the weekend with flash floods reported in rivers coursing through the capital and extensive damage to highways connecting the city with the rest of Nepal.
Rivers around the capital Kathmandu burst their banks, inundating nearby houses.
"It's scary. I had never seen such kind of devastation in my lifetime before," said Mahamad Shabuddin, 34, who runs a motorbike workshop in the city near the swollen Bagmati River.
Survivors were seen standing on top of buildings or wading through murky waters to get to safety.
"When I went outside in the middle of the night, the water had reached up to my shoulders," Hari Mallah, a 49-year-old truck driver, said.
"My truck is completely under water."
Rescue teams race against time
Large swathes of Nepal have been inundated since Friday, prompting disaster authorities to warn of flash floods in multiple rivers.
Basanta Adhikari, a spokesman for Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, said authorities were working to rescue and get relief to those impacted by the floods.
More than 3,000 security personnel were deployed to assist rescue efforts with helicopters and motorboats.
Rescue teams were using rafts to pull survivors to safety.
All domestic flights out of Kathmandu were cancelled from Friday evening, affecting more than 150 departures.
The summer monsoon brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rainfall.
Monsoon rains from June to September bring widespread death and destruction every year across South Asia, but the numbers of fatal floods and landslides have increased in recent years.
Experts say the climate crisis is increasing their frequency and severity.
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