66 dead, dozens missing

Monsoon floods and landslides have killed at least 66 people across Nepal and India but officials fear that figure could almost double as rescuers search for dozens believed lost under mud and in submerged villages.

Authorities yesterday upgraded the death toll from flash flooding across landlocked Nepal to 49 as the water kept rising, forcing thousands to flee for higher ground.

"Another 17 are missing. Search and rescue works are underway but the water levels have not declined yet," said Shankar Hari Acharya, the chief of Nepal's national emergency centre.

The Red Cross estimated a higher death toll of 53, with dozens more missing and injured and thousands of homes destroyed.

In neighbouring India, rescuers were desperately trying to reach two packed buses swept into a gorge by a landslide so powerful it destroyed an entire stretch of highway.

The coaches had stopped for a tea break around midnight Saturday in Himachal Pradesh when tonnes of rock and mud cascaded down a mountainside.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered from the accident site in the Himalayan state, said Sandeep Kadam, a senior official at the scene.

But dozens were still missing somewhere at the bottom of the ravine, with soldiers and rescuers clawing through the mud and rock to reach them.

"Around 200 metres of national highway washed away with two buses and more than 50 feared buried," said Indian army spokesman Colonel Aman Anand, who was helping coordinate rescue efforts.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his condolences and prayers for those affected by the accident.

Meanwhile, army has been called out to rescue marooned people and IAF has been put on standby as Assam reels under one of the worst flood fury, reported TNN.

In Nepal the toll from this year's monsoon -- which typically lasts from late June until the end of August -- has already eclipsed last year, with more than 100 people confirmed dead.

Last weekend in the central lowlands, four girls from the same family drowned when they fell into a flooded roadside ditch.

Nepal's weather department warned that heavy rain was expected to continue for another day, following days of torrential downpours.