At least 40 people killed

Floods and landslides triggered by torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 40 people across South Asia in the last two days, officials said yesterday.

The monsoon, which lasts from June to September, causes widespread death and destruction across South Asia each year.

In Nepal, at least 30 people have died in floods and landslides after heavy rains hit the country's eastern region and the southern plains.

Bishwaraj Pokharel, spokesperson for Nepal Police, added that another 11 people were injured and 15 others reported missing.

Officials said the Kosi River in eastern Nepal, which flows into the eastern Indian state of Bihar, had risen above the danger mark.

The Kosi has been a serious concern for both India and Nepal since it broke its banks in 2008 and changed course, submerging swathes of land and affecting more than two million people in Bihar. About 500 people died in that disaster.

Thirty of the 56 sluice gates at a barrage along the Kosi at the Indo-Nepal border have been opened, and rescue teams deployed to evacuate villagers, officials said.

The weather office urged residents to remain alert, saying heavy rains were expected to continue through the weekend.

Three of the victims were killed when a wall collapsed in the capital Kathmandu.

"Our first priority is life saving rescue and all our resources have been deployed," Home Ministry official Umakanta Adhikari told AFP.

Police used boats to bring people to safety as rivers swelled, inundating their settlements, while parents were seen wading across chest-high waters carrying children on their shoulders.

In neighbouring India 11 deaths have been recorded in the northeastern states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, officials said Friday.

Monsoon floods have inundated 21 districts in Assam, affecting thousands, officials said.

In Bangladesh aid groups were providing rations to Rohingya refugees in the southeast of the country with the UN World Food Programme saying Friday that 3 people including a child had died.

Last year, more than 1,200 people were been killed across South Asia in monsoon storms with India's Kerala suffering its worst floods in nearly 100 years.