KATMANDU, July 21 (UPI) -- Floods and landslides, triggered by heavy monsoon rains, have left a trail of destruction, killing at least 54 persons in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal since July 11, a spokesman of the Home Ministry said Sunday.

A landslide swooped down on the house of Dhan Bahadur Rai, killing six members of the family in Bhojpur district in East Nepal Friday, Gopendra Pandey said. Two others survived by fleeing the house.

In another incident, landslides buried alive eight memebrs of a family in Argala village of Baglung district in west Nepal on July 17, the spokesman said.

The army has been deployed to fight the floods in the worst affected districts of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari in east Nepal.

Flood waters have levelled thousands homes while destroying or damaging standing crops, roads and bridges, Pandey said.

"We are still estimating the total damage. The main problem is waterlogging," he said.

The only road link between the Nepalese capital and Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, was cut off when landslides struck the Katmandu-Kodari highway, blocking traffic between the two capitals, officials of the Transport Ministry said.