Nuwakot, August 28

Five quake victims were among six persons killed when landslides struck two villages in Nuwakot district today. Six persons were injured and an eight-year-old child has gone missing in the two incidents of landslide.

In Gorsyang VDC, five members of two families lost their lives after landslide swept away three temporary shelters housing quake victims in Kavre early this morning. According to DSP Siddhi Bikram Shah of the district police office, 36-year-old Som Bahadur Tamang and his wife Kanchhimaya, 35, along with Sundar Bahadur Tamang, his wife Furwamaya and their son Keshav, 11, were killed in the incident.

While Som Bahadur’s children Tshering, Ashok, Manamaya and Sanjumaya, aged 15, 13, 12 and 8, respectively, were injured,  Sundar Bahadur and Furwamaya’s eight year-old son Purna has been missing since the landslide swept away three temporary shelters housing quake victims.

The affected families had been living in temporary shelters ever since their houses were rendered uninhabitable due to the devastating earthquakes of April and May. Over 30 families are putting up in temporary shelters here though the entire village is facing the risk of landslide.

An eighty-year-old woman, Tek Kumari Thapa Magar, was killed when landslide buried her house in Jharlang  in Samari VDC. Rest of the members of her family are safe, as they fled the scene in the nick of time.

According to the DSP, a police team deployed from the district headquarters Bidur had rescued those injured. Of them, the seriously injured have sent to the Capital, while others are undergoing treatment at the district hospital in Bidur.

Gosyang a three-hour drive from the headquarters, while it takes 90 minutes to reach Samari from Bidur. The villages, where ground has developed cracks at several places due to the massive earthquakes, are highly vulnerable to landslides.Meanwhile, in the wake of the landslide threat, some of the families from Kavre have been shifted to safer places.