46 killed as landslide washes away hill road in Himachal
At least 46 people were killed and 10 missing after a landslide triggered by a cloudburst swept away several vehicles and stretch of a busy highway in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday.
Mandi deputy commissioner Sandeep Kadam said a team of National Disaster Response Force and army dug through mounds of mud and stones to recover 46 bodies from the site. The rescuers also pulled out five people alive from the rubble.
Apart from the 200-metre stretch of the Mandi-Pathankot highway, the landslide that took place around 1.15am at Kotrupi village washed away two buses of Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC), two cars and a motorcycle. Five houses were also damaged.
Himachal transport minister GS Bali said the toll could rise. Kadam said at least 10 people are feared trapped under the landslide debris.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to condole the incident. “Pained by the loss of lives due to landslide-related accidents in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district. My condolences with the families of the deceased,” Modi tweeted.
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In a blow to the Hizbul Mujahideen, three militants, including Burhan Wani’s successor Yasin Itoo, were killed in an overnight gunfight that also left two soldiers dead in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, police said on Sunday.
A youth was killed in neighbouring Pulwama when locals clashed with forces as they were returning from the site of gunfight, police said in the evening.
The 40-year-old Itoo alias Mehmood Gaznavi was named the “commander” of the home-grown militant outfit after Wani was killed in July 2016.
Wani’s death sparked violent street protests that left around 100 people, most of them civilians, dead.
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