One person died while at least 20 others have been missing following rain-induced disasters in Kalikot district.

According to the police, a 16-year-old boy died in a landslide that occured at Sanni Triveni Rural Municipality. He was buried by a landslide in the Pipiri river, police said.

Likewise, thirteen people are missing after a landslide at Tilagufa Municipality in Kalikot district swept them on Sunday.

Kalikot police chief Deputy Superintendent Jayashwar Rimal said that the missing individuals were attending a funeral ceremony on the banks of Tila River when a landslide erupted from Rachuli village and swept them into the river.

Rimal informed that two individuals, who were also attending the ceremony, managed to save themselves by pulling out from the landslide debris.

Nirmala Shahi, a local resident, said that the missing persons could be stuck in the mud or might have been swept into the river.

Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, deputy mayor of Tilagufa Municipality, said that those in the funeral procession disappeared in the Tila River due to a landslide.

According to the police, 13 people have gone missing in Rachuli, five, of the same family, in Baligaon and one in Bhaisaigoda of Tilagufa Municipality; and one in Mumra of Sanni Triveni Rural Municipality.

The police said that there is difficulty in carrying out search operations for the missing persons due to accessibility to the incident site and weather conditions.

More than 200 families of the Rachuli village have been displaced due to the landslide and have been sheltered at Kalika Secondary School, Rachuli.

Transportation in the region has come to a standstill and the Karnali highway is blocked as the rain has not stopped for 5 days.

Chief District Officer of Kalikot Ramhari Sharma said that a police team is arriving at the incident site from Nagma, a police station on the border of Jumla.

According to Sharma, even though the locals had informed about the incident, the police could not reach the site, so the damage was not ascertained.

“There have been reports of locals missing in the landslides. All information will be known only after the police reach the scene,” he said.