Grapevine

Nepal closes schools as heavy rains bring country to standstill

Some 150 people killed and dozens missing after bad weather triggers floods and landslides.

Officials in Nepal said schools in flood-hit areas will be shut in the coming days as landslides and flash flooding triggered by heavy rains have killed some 150 people.

The order on Sunday came as authorities said students and their parents faced difficulties while university and school buildings damaged by the rains needed repair.

“We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the affected areas for three days,” Lakshmi Bhattarai, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, told the Reuters news agency.

Entire neighbourhoods in the country’s capital, Kathmandu, were inundated over the weekend with flash floods reported in rivers coursing through the region. The floods also damaged the highways connecting the city with the remainder of Nepal.