A major river in Nepal has flooded, sweeping away houses, bridges and part of a hydropower station, authorities have said.
Officials confirmed that 95 people, including nine foreigners, have been rescued along the bank of the Budhi Gandaki River in the central Gorkha district. No casualties have been reported, but five people remain missing.
More than 200 homes were damaged and more than 650 people were affected by the flood, according to Nepal's Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
The flood struck on Sunday as children and communities were preparing to mark the first day of the Dashain festival, one of the most significant occasions in the Nepali calendar.
Within a couple of hours, the river's water level at one location rose from two metres to nearly 8.5 metres, officials said.
Some settlements have been completely cut off and are now accessible only by air. Nepal's army mobilised four helicopters for search and rescue operations.
The flood swept away about a dozen houses and several suspension bridges. A hydroelectric project was also damaged, with some construction equipment carried away by the waters.
A video of the flood shows the moment raging waters swept down a valley and washed away an entire building complex. Terrified onlookers filmed from higher ground as the waters surged through the district.
Ganesh Karki, a resident of Jagatbagar, said he and others took shelter about 500 metres uphill in a nearby forest after receiving a warning call early in the morning.
"We never imagined a flood of this size," he said. "The water surged for about 15 minutes and then stopped repeatedly throughout the morning. We are afraid to return home at night."
The exact cause of the latest flood remains unclear. Some officials suggest a landslide may have temporarily blocked the river or a tributary, causing dammed water to burst through, while others say residents upstream reported an ice avalanche.
Binod Parajuli, a meteorologist working with the Nepalese government, said: "Our hydrological station was swept away and we are not getting any data from that location."
Experts noted that the debris flow was significantly smaller and travelled more slowly than the devastating flash floods that struck in August.
The Budhi Gandaki is a tributary of the Trishuli River, downstream from another tributary where an avalanche of rock and ice in August triggered floods along the Nepal-Tibet border, near the peak of Lantang Lirung in the Himalayas. Hundreds of people were killed in those floods.
Nepal is still recovering from that catastrophic event, which hit border towns with Tibet two months ago, leaving more than 1,400 people dead and thousands missing.
Save the Children said it was mobilising an emergency team to respond to Sunday's flood.
"Children's lives have been ripped apart in an instant yet again," said Tara Chettry, the charity's director in Nepal.
"We are yet to see the full scale of the damage, but they may have lost their homes, schools and communities. Many children in Gorkha will still be in shock and distress after the mega floods in August, barely having a chance to get back on their feet."
Nepal is highly prone to natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides and floods, due to the unpredictable environment of the Himalayas. Experts say climate change, which is accelerating glacial melt, is likely increasing the risk of such events and leaving local communities increasingly vulnerable.
