As many as 13 people who were attending a funeral rite went missing after a massive landslide struck at Rachuli in Tilagupha Municipality-4, Kalikot on Sunday. Two individuals sustained critical injuries in the incident, police said.

The landslide hit the funeral attendees while they were cremating a local on the bank of the Tila River. Around 50 villagers attended the funeral of 22-year-old Hemaraj Shahi. According to the eyewitnesses, the landslide descended when the relatives of the deceased were preparing to light the pyre.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Jayashwar Rimal confirmed 13 people including the ward chairman of Tilagupha-4 went missing in the incident. The security personnel and the locals carried out a search operation on Monday but couldn’t locate the buried individuals.

Tekraj Shahi and Abaraj Shahi of Rachuli were injured in the incident and were medevaced to Surkhet for further treatment.

Heavy and incessant rains set off dozens of landslides in various places in Kalikot, a hill district of Karnali Province, leaving at least 10 other people missing in separate incidents on Sunday. Among them four bodies were recovered on Monday.

Chief District Officer Ramhari Sharma said the landslides in Rachuli village have displaced around 200 families. Nine houses were completely destroyed while 12 others incurred partial damage, Sharma said.

Meanwhile, in Tilagupha’s ward 7, five members of a family went missing when a landslide buried a house belonging to Dhrobaraj Bista. The rescuers retrieved two bodies on Monday while three are still missing.

Moreover, in the neighboring districts of Mugu and Humla, at least 12 people died and one person went missing in separate incidents of landslides on Sunday.

In Mugu, eight people died when a landslide lashed Salim village in Chhayannath Rara Municipality-11 on Sunday. A villager is still missing in the disaster, police said.

According to Kunjuma Kumai, ward chief of Chhayannath Rara-11, two women, three men and three children are among the deceased.

Nine people went missing in the landslide on Sunday afternoon. Deputy Superintendent of Police Subas Hamal said that security personnel, with the help of the locals, recovered the bodies of eight people on Monday. The landslide damaged about one and a half dozen houses in Salim village. The families displaced by the landslide have been moved to Prabhat Secondary School in Rowa village and accommodation arrangements have been made there, said ward chair Kumai.

In Humla, four people died after a landslide buried a house in Chankheli Rural Municipality on Sunday evening. Deucha BK’s 65-year-old mother, five-year-old son and two daughters, aged nine and seven, died when the landslide just above the house swept away the house at around 7pm.

(With inputs from Raj Bahadur Shahi in Mugu and Janak Bahadur Shahi in Humla)