Seven killed in Kyrgyz mud slides

BISHKEK:

Five children and two adults have died in mudslides in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous Central Asian country on the front line of climate change, the government said Saturday.

“Seven people died in the Nookat district” of southern Kyrgyzstan,” said the Ministry of Emergency Situations, adding that five of the dead were minors born between 2008 and 2016.

At least 1,300 people on holiday in the area have been evacuated since Friday evening, it added. Saturday’s tragedy comes just days after the death of a five-year-old child in a similar disaster.

Central Asia, a region particularly sensitive to climate change, regularly suffers floods, earthquakes, landslides, avalanches and fires.

But rising temperatures are leading to more frequent and intense droughts, natural disasters and unpredictable seasonal weather condition in Kyrgyzstan, as per UN.