Nepal urges climbers, trekkers to halt activities as rainfall continues

Nepal's Department of Tourism (DoT) has asked trekking and expedition companies to halt activities as a precaution in view of incessant rainfall in the region in the last few days.

"We ask all agencies to take this seriously. The weather is not favourable for climbing and we want them to make sure all their clients are safe. We want the organisers to only undertake mountain activities if the weather permits," DoT stated in the release.

Autumn is a popular season for mountain expeditions and trekking in the Himalayan country. A total of 395 climbers from various countries have already taken permits to climb 17 different mountains, including Mount Everest.

"From past three days there has been a sudden change in the weather and most parts of the nation has witnessed rainfall," Barun Paudel, a meteorologist at Nepal's Metrological and Forecasting division told ANI.

On Tuesday nearly a dozen helicopters of various private aviation service providers made an emergency landing in various parts of the country because of the weather.