Deadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September but experts say climate change is making them worse.
Entire neighbourhoods in Kathmandu were inundated after the heaviest rains in more than two decades, with the capital temporarily cut off from the rest of Nepal after landslides blocked highways.
Nepal's Home Ministry said 209 people had been killed across the country with another 29 still missing.
"We intensified aerial rescue for people who are sick or still need to be brought to safety," home ministry spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari told AFP.
Police said at least 35 of those killed were buried alive when earth from a landslide careened into vehicles on a highway south of Kathmandu.
Bulldozers were being used to clear nearly two dozen sections of major roads leading into Kathmandu that had been blocked by debris.
The home ministry said it was working to rescue numerous people who had been stranded on the highways.
More than 400 people were rescued from various districts on Monday.
Rescuers in knee-high rubber boots were using shovels to clear mud from the worst-hit riverside neighbourhoods around Kathmandu, many of them unauthorised slum settlements.
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a Nepal-based think tank, said the disaster had been made worse by unplanned urban encroachment around the Bagmati River, which flows through the capital.
Nepal's army said more than 4,000 people had been rescued, with helicopters, motorboats and rafts bringing stranded people to safety.
Nilkantha Pandey of the humanitarian organisation CARE Nepal said many of those affected by the floods needed safe drinking water and temporary housing.
"Mostly informal settlements have been affected," Pandey said. "It is time to respond and not delay."
- 'An extreme event' -
Merchants in Kathmandu said damage to intercity roads had drastically cut the supply of fresh fruit and vegetables into the capital.
"The farmers have their produce ready but with the highways blocked, all of it is stuck," Binay Shrestha, who works at one of the city's main produce markets, told AFP.
Nepal's weather bureau said their preliminary data measured record-breaking rain in the 24 hours to Saturday morning.
A monitoring station at Kathmandu airport recorded about 240 millimetres (9.4 inches) of rain, the highest figure since 2002.
Climate expert Arun Bhakta Shrestha of ICIMOD told AFP that rainfall should be decreasing by late September with the end of the annual monsoon.
"Rainfall of this kind has to be described as abnormal," he said.
"It is an extreme event... I see the possibility of the role of climate change to some extent."
But he added that unplanned urban development had also worsened the impact of the disaster.
The summer monsoon from July to September brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rainfall and is vital for agriculture and food production in a region home to around two billion people.
However, monsoon rains also bring widespread death and destruction in the form of floods and landslides.
Experts say climate change has worsened their frequency and intensity.
More than 300 people have been killed in rain-related disasters in Nepal this year.
15 killed in Iran flash flood: new toll
Tehran (AFP) Oct 1, 2024 -
A flash flood that swept through a southern city of Iran killed 15 people, state media reported on Tuesday, updating an earlier toll of six dead.
"After finding the last body of Halil River flood incident in Jiroft, a total of 15 are pronounced dead," said the official IRNA news agency.
The search and rescue operation had been brought to an end, it added.
Almost all of those killed in Monday's flood were Afghan nationals living in the Islamic republic, Iran's ISNA news agency reported.
Jiroft is a city located in the normally dry southern province of Kerman.
Scientists say climate change amplifies extreme weather, including droughts as well as the potential for the increased intensity of rainstorms.
Iran has endured repeated droughts in the past decade, but also regular floods, a phenomenon made worse when torrential rain falls on sun-baked earth.
In 2022, heavy rains in Iran's south left at least 80 people dead and caused damage estimated at about $200 million.
Kim Jong Un visits flood-hit areas of N. Korea
Seoul (AFP) Sept 30, 2024 -
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited flood-damaged areas in the country and ordered swift action to rebuild homes, state media reported on Monday.
North Korea experienced a record downpour in late July which killed an unspecified number of people, flooded homes and submerged swathes of farmland in its northern regions near China.
Thousands of displaced flood victims were relocated to facilities in the capital while their homes are being rebuilt.
Visiting the construction site, Kim ordered workers "to alleviate the pain of the flood victims as early as possible," according to the official KCNA news agency.
Photos from KCNA showed Kim walking through the muddy site and speaking with officials in front of partially built structures.
This marks his third visit to flood-hit areas, with previous appearances showing him holding children, inspecting damage from a dinghy, and driving through floodwaters in his luxury vehicle.
International offers of support have poured in since news of the flooding disaster first emerged, including from South Korea which offered aid via the Korean Red Cross despite the two countries' strained relations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had also offered "immediate humanitarian support" to aid its recovery efforts.
Kim has expressed thanks for the offers of help but refused to accept any foreign aid, saying that the country's recovery efforts would be "thoroughly based on self-reliance", according to KCNA.
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