Nepal counts cost after deadly protests

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At least 72 people were killed in two days of anti-corruption protests, with scores more badly injured, according to official figures.

PHOTO: REUTERS

KATHMANDU – Nepal is assessing the multi-million dollar damage from

last week’s violent protests

At least 72 people were killed in two days of anti-corruption protests, with scores more badly injured, according to official figures.

“So much has been destroyed,” police spokesman Binod Ghimire told AFP, adding that it would take time to calculate the full extent of the damage, including outside the capital.

Nepal’s new interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki

At the Supreme Court, officials are working under tents outside the charred building, alongside rows of burned-out vehicles, trying to salvage water-soaked documents.

AFP photographers who visited the gutted parliament building said entire halls had been reduced to blackened ruins by fires that burned uncontrolled for hours on Sept 9.

The Hotel Association of Nepal reported more than 20 hotels damaged, including the Hilton fire. Others were looted.

Losses were estimated at 25 billion Nepali rupees (S$226 million),with more than 2,000 workers affected. Damage to the Hilton alone was put as high as US$56 million.

Tourism is a key employer, the country’s fourth largest, providing jobs to more than 371,000 people, according to government figures, with more than a million visitors every year.

Fire also ripped through Singha Durbar, the sprawling palace that housed the prime