KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescuers were struggling Monday to reach villages in southern Nepal cut off by a wind- and rainstorm that killed at least 28 people and injured hundreds more.
High winds during Sunday night’s storm flipped cars and blew one passenger bus off a highway, causing fatalities. At least 40 people were on the bus. Police said other deaths were caused by collapsing walls and falling bricks in homes and toppled trees and electricity poles.
The rainstorm swept through villages in a farming region of Bara and Parsa districts. The government administrator in Bara, Rajesh Poudel, said Monday morning that 27 were killed there. One person died in neighboring Parsa, administrator Narayan Bhattarai said.
Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli had previously said on Twitter another 400 were injured. The weather was clearer Monday morning, which was expected to allow helicopters to begin bringing the injured from their villages to medical facilities.
Police official Sanu Ram Bhattarai said police officers and soldiers from neighboring areas had reached the districts Monday and were trying to reach the villages.
Poudel earlier said the number of deaths would likely increase as the storm had hit many villages in the Bara district, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital, Kathmandu.
Local television showed the injured being brought to a hospital by cars, ambulances and even motorcycles, but roads in many villages had been blocked by fallen trees and electricity poles.
