Nepal shuts schools after 148 killed in monsoon rains

Nepal has shut schools for three days after landslides and floods triggered by two days of heavy rain across the Himalayan nation killed at least 148 people, with 56 missing, officials said.

The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in the Kathmandu valley, where 37 deaths were recorded in a region home to 4 million people and the capital.

Authorities said students and their parents faced difficulties as university and school buildings damaged by the rains needed repair.

"We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the affected areas for three days," Lakshmi Bhattarai, a spokesperson for the education ministry, told Reuters.

Some parts of the capital reported rain of up to 322.2mm, pushing the level of its main Bagmati river up 2.2m past the danger mark, experts said.

But there were some signs of respite, with the rains easing in many places, said Govinda Jha, a weather forecaster in the capital.

"There may be some isolated showers, but heavy rains are unlikely," he said.

Television images showed police rescuers in knee-high boots using picks and shovels to clear away mud and retrieve 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a massive landslide at a site on the key route into Kathmandu.

Residents pushed through chest-deep water to get to higher ground, with nearly 3,300 people rescued by relief teams, with more than 3,000 security personnel deployed to assist rescue efforts with helicopters and motorboats.

Landslides have blocked several highways connecting the capital to the rest of the country, leaving hundreds of travellers stranded.

Weather officials in the capital blamed the rainstorms on a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal extending over parts of neighbouring India close to Nepal.

Haphazard development amplifies climate change risks in Nepal, climate scientists at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said.

"I've never before seen flooding on this scale in Kathmandu," said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an environmental risk official at the centre.

In a statement, it urged the government and city planners to "urgently" step up investment and plans for infrastructure, such as underground storm water and sewage systems.

The impact of the rains was aggravated by poor drainage due to unplanned settlement and urbanisation efforts, construction on floodplains, lack of areas for water retention and encroachment on the Bagmati River, it added.

However, the region's top bureaucrat Ram Chandra Tiwari said the level in the Koshi River in Nepal's southeast has started to fall.

The river, which brings deadly floods to India's eastern state of Bihar nearly every year, had been running above the danger mark at a level nearly three times normal, he said.

The summer monsoon brings South Asia 70-80% of its annual rainfall.

Monsoon rains from June to September bring widespread death and destruction every year across South Asia, but the number of fatal floods and landslides have increased in recent years.

Experts say climate change has worsened their frequency and intensity.

A landslide that hit a road in Chitwan district in July pushed two buses with 59 passengers aboard into a river.

Three people were able to escape alive, but authorities managed to recover only 20 bodies from the accident, with raging flood waters impeding the search.

More than 260 people have died in Nepal in rain-related disasters this year.