The bodies were spotted near barrage pier number 3 in the Madanpur-Sukrauli area of Khadda on Friday, following which police and administrative officials reached the spot and began efforts to ascertain their identities, they said.

Khadda SHO Sandeep Singh said the bodies were spotted floating in the river by monitoring teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and subsequently taken out.

The information about the recovered bodies had been shared with authorities in the neighbouring districts of Nepal to help establish their identities.

The bodies could not be identified immediately.

Several other items, including vehicles, household goods, gas cylinders, drums, furniture, logs and other debris, have also been seen floating in the Gandak and washing up along its banks, officials said.

A large number of villagers have been gathering along the river to retrieve articles being washed ashore. The administration has appealed to people not to enter the river to collect the items and instead inform officials if they spot objects floating downstream.

The developments in Kushinagar come a day after four bodies were recovered from a river in neighbouring Maharajganj district. The bodies, found in a severely decomposed condition, had not been identified and authorities were in contact with the Nepal administration to ascertain whether they were among those reported missing after the floods and landslides there.