45 IIT students, 255 others stranded in HP safe: Official
◗ Over 500 people were reportedly stranded in Lahaul and Spiti district. ◗ CM said that the state had suffered losses totalling ` 1,200 crore after three days of rains.
Shimla: About 300 people, including 45 IIT Roorkee students, stranded in various parts of Lahaul and Spiti district, are safe, a Himachal Pradesh government official said on Tuesday. Following snowfall, the Rohtang Pass and inner roads in the area got blocked due to which about 300 people got stranded, Keylong sub divisional magistrate Amar Negi said.
Shimla, Sept. 25: About 50 IIT- students on a trek in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul valley were rescued by Indian Air Force helicopters while over 500 people remain stranded in other areas in Lahaul and Spiti district, officials said Tuesday.
The death toll in the state, battered by heavy rains — and snowfall in Lahaul and Spiti — has risen to 10 with four more deaths being reported on Tuesday. Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said the state had suffered losses totalling ` 1,200 crore after three days of rains, beginning Saturday.
A team of six trekkers from New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh is missing in Kinnaur district, officials said. The incessant rains had triggered flash floods and landslides in the hill states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, killing at least 11 people on Monday. There were rains also in Punjab and Uttarakhand.
No fresh casualties were reported in the other states on Tuesday. But in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district, two labourers died when a rock fell on their home. Also, two people were killed when a car skidded off a slippery road in the state’s Kinnaur district.
There were only scattered showers in the state on Tuesday and the Met department predicted that the weather will hold on Wednesday as well. But several roads, including portions of the ChandigarhManali route, remained blocked due to landslides and snowfall.
Apart from the rescue of the entire group of trekkers from the Indian Institute of TechnologyRoorkee, the IAF also rescued a German couple trapped in a blizzard while trekking from Ringdum to Dibling near Lahaul- Spiti.
The IAF has sent three helicopters to Himachal Pradesh, and the Centre has assured more choppers if needed, the CM said. They are being deployed to rescue over 500 people still stranded in Lahaul- Spiti. About 300 of them were trapped in Baralacha area and the remaining 200 in Koksar, an official said.
There are reports of others caught between landslides on the roads. Schools were closed for the second consecutive day on Tuesday in Kangra, Kullu. — PTI