Two killed, 10 injured as heavy rain lashes Kathmandu, other parts of Nepal

KATHMANDU: At least two workers building a tunnel at a hydropower project in Nepal were killed and ten injured as heavy rain lashed Kathmandu and other parts of the country on Friday and Saturday, officials said.

Two labourers died on Friday after they were buried in the tunnel of the under-construction Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project in Sindhupalchowk district, 125 km East of Kathmandu.

Their bodies have been recovered.

As many as 12 workers were buried when the dam side tunnel of Jhirpu Electro Power Company Limited, which is under construction in Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality, collapsed following heavy rainfall.

The police said 10 workers were injured in the incident. The injured were rescued and admitted to a local hospital for treatment.

Separately, an 18-year-old boy went missing after the Rapti River in the Dang district of Western Nepal swept him away.

However, two other men who were stranded on a tree near the swollen river were rescued by security personnel, according to the police.

A woman has also gone missing in Dolakha district, about 180 kilometres East of Kathmandu, after being swept away by the flooding river.

The police have started a riverbank patrolling after the water level of rivers in the Kathmandu Valley increased alarmingly in the wake of incessant rainfall.

Most places in Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces received light to moderate rain while heavy rainfall occurred in a few places of Bagmati, Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali.

The flood in the Hanumante river in Bhaktapur district near Kathmandu triggered by heavy rainfall has reached above the danger level and started entering the local residential areas.

More than 600 houses are at risk due to the swelling river, said the police.

Dinesh Raj Mainali, the spokesperson at the Kathmandu Valley Police Office, said the police have started patrolling to prevent untoward incidents along the river corridors in the Valley.

"We mobilised police teams on the banks of rivers and streams, considering the possible risks of floods and inundations in the nearby settlements."

The police vehicles are on constant watch along the riverside -- Bagmati, Bishnumati, Manohara and Hanumante rivers, the spokesperson said.