KATHMANDU (AFP)
Residents of Nepal's flood-hit capital returned to their mud-covered homes on Sunday to survey the wreckage of devastating floods that have killed at least 126 people across the Himalayan republic.
Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.
Entire neighbourhoods in Kathmandu were inundated over the weekend with flash floods reported in rivers coursing through the capital and extensive damage to highways connecting the city with the rest of Nepal.
Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said 126 people had been killed across the country with another 63 still missing.
Home Ministry spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari told AFP that bulldozers were being used to clear several highways that had been blocked by debris, cutting Kathmandu off from the rest of the country.
"More than 3,000 people have been rescued," he added.
At least 14 of those killed were aboard two buses and were buried alive when earth from a landslide careened into a highway south of Kathmandu, Dhading district chief Rajendra Dev Pandey told AFP.
The valley in which the capital sits recorded 240 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours to Saturday morning, the country's weather bureau told the Kathmandu Post newspaper.
It was the highest rainfall recorded in Kathmandu since at least 1970, the report said.
More than 3,000 security personnel were deployed to assist rescue efforts with helicopters and motorboats.
Rescue teams were using rafts to pull survivors to safety.
Domestic flights resumed in and out of Kathmandu by Sunday morning after weather forced a complete stoppage from Friday evening, with more than 150 departures cancelled.