KATHMANDU, Aug 21: Property worth more than two billion rupees has been damaged in the incidents of natural disaster in four months across the country.

According to the Home Ministry, such amount of property was damaged in natural disaster incidents like fire, flooding, landslide, rainfall, thunderstorm and hailstone, occurred from April 14 to August 20. Of them, high amount of property was damaged by fire.

As per the data provided by the Home Ministry, fire damaged property worth Rs 1.89 billion while property worth Rs 31.4 million was damaged by flooding, Rs 79.8 million by landslide.

Similarly, rainfall damaged property worth Rs 38.6 million while property worth Rs 4.4 million was damaged by thunderstorm, Rs 35.8 million by storm, Rs 457,000 by hailstone and Rs 1.19 million by other reasons.

A total of 4,698 families were affected and 561 people lost their lives in the incidents of natural disaster during this period. Likewise, 95 people went missing and 2,331 people suffered injuries in the natural disaster incidents.

Chief at National Emergency Operations Centre of Home Ministry, Bednidhi Khanal, said that the Ministry was in ready position for rescue and relief in the incidents of natural disaster. RSS

Property worth Rs. two million was damaged in the fire, according to the Area Police Office, Damak.

The fire reportedly began at around 1:30 am from the house of Dhana Maya Limbu and engulfed the houses of Babita Limbu, Buddhi Maya Bhujel, Khadga Bahadur Timsena, Manita Khadka, Dipendra Timsena, Guman Dwaj Subba, Jasmaya Magar and Milan Kumar Das. A motorcycle (Ba.3Pa.2765) was also damaged in the fire.

Locals and police worked together to put out the fire .

The lightning fell on his house while he was asleep at around 1:00 am today.

Meanwhile, four girls were seriously injured after lightning struck them in Dadeldhura district.

They are all students at the Sitaram Secondary School, Kailapalmandu VDC-1. The incident took place on Wednesday evening.

National Seismological Center confirmed the quake and said that its epicenter was in Dhankuta.

Tremors were felt in Jhapa, Sunsari and Morang districts.

Landslide triggered by incessant rainfall swept away houses in Mahabharat, Budhimorang and Bhedetar VDCs with more than 100 people displaced, security personnel mobilised in the affected site said.

Likewise, many more houses in Ghante, Garjuwa and Kharanekhola area are at risk of falling into the landslide.

The mudslide has also obstructed the Koshi highway, with more than 100 vehicles stranded in between.

Continuous rainfall and the large coverage of the landslide have affected rescue and relief work, Superintendent of Police of Dhankuta Iswari Prasad Chapagain said.

The extent of the damage caused is yet to be known, police said.

Efforts are on since early this morning to remove the debris and clear the highway, as well as rescue those affected, Chief District Officer Rameswar Dangal said.

NSC said that the earthquake that shook the capital on Friday night had its epicenter 60 Kms north of Jiri, Dolakha and confirmed that the earthquake measured 6.o on the Richter Scle.

The quake had sent capital residents out of the house in the middle of night, with an aftershock at around 11.40 minutes, local time.

Earlier report on this news portal reported that the magnitude of the earthquake was 4.9 on the Richter scale with its epicenter in 3km NNW of Chongdui, China.

However, NSC corrected the report and claimed that the epicenter of the earthquake is 330 KM north of Kathmandu.

KATHMANDU: An earthquake scaling 4.9 on the Richter Scale was measured in Western region of Tibet on Friday night, 11.35 NST. The repercussions were felt till Kathmandu which forced most of the its citizens to get out of their house at the midnight hour.

According to reports from American Geological Society, the epicenter of the quake was 3km NNW of Chongdui, China and incoming media reports reported that 450000 houses in the surrounding were damaged.

However in Kathmandu minor tremors were felt and no damages were reported immediately. Kathmandu is 332 KMs away from the epicenter of the earthquake.

Soon after the quake, social media network Facebook flooded with comments about the quake.

Image Source: http://www.google.org/publicalerts/alert?aid=abde82ea02b8a381&hl=en&gl=US&source=web

They were swept away by the Solo River while fishing, police said.

Balkumar Newar (19) slipped and fell into the river while fishing and Chandra Newar was also swept away while trying to rescue him, said the Necha Area Police Office.

The police and locals are searching for them but were not found yet, said DSP Badri Bikram Thapa.