Kathmandu, Aug 18 (IANS/EFE): The toll in floods and landslides hitting western Nepal since last week has risen to 101, while 126 people remain missing and 17,000 have abandoned their homes, officials told Efe news agency Monday.

"Since the rainfall was unusually high, the water could not flow in the rivers causing flash floods," said Jhankanath Dhakal of Nepal's Emergency Operations Centre.

A vast area in the Surkhet district has been flooded by the Bheri river, which has destroyed hundreds of homes and killed thousands of livestock.

Twenty-eight people died and 105 were missing in Surkhet, said Jagat Basnet, assistant chief officer of the district.

In Bardiya district, about 350 km from Kathmandu, 19 people died and 19,000 lost their homes when the Babai river breached its banks.

"This is the worst flooding of the Babai river in the last 50 years," local police chief Birendre Kumar said.

The flooding of Nepal's rivers and torrential rains have also killed 28 people and forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the neighbouring Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Landslides and floods are frequent in Nepal and in rest of southeast Asia in the monsoon season, between July and August, but over the past few days the storms have been stronger than normal.

On Aug 2, a massive landslide destroyed a Nepalese village, killing 30 people while 135 others were reported missing.