Digging deep

A landslide in northern India swept two packed passenger buses off a hillside into a deep gorge.

DHARAMSALA: A massive landslide in mountainous northern India swept two packed passenger buses off a hillside into a deep gorge, killing 46 people, an official said.

The coaches had stopped for a tea break around midnight on Saturday in Himachal Pradesh when tonnes of rock and mud swept away an entire stretch of a highway, roughly 200km from state capital Shimla.

Rescue teams reached the scene but struggled in the dark and steep terrain, with the army later joining the search for those still feared missing at the bottom of the ravine.

Soldiers and volunteers resumed rescue operations yesterday.

Intermittent rain hampered rescue work and army troops had to stop late Sunday with more rain threatening to cause another landslide, police superintendent Ashok Sharma said. Soldiers managed to pull out 46 bodies from the buses that were covered with rocks and mud.

The two buses, two cars and a motorbike had been trapped on a highway by the landslide, said Mandi district official Sandeep Kadam.

With the road blocked in several places, soldiers used shovels and pickaxes to remove rocks, boulders and debris covering the buses and pull out the bodies.

Earth-moving equipment was brought in later to speed up the clearing operations.

Sharma, who was overseeing the rescue operations, said the death toll could rise and he did not hold out much hope for survivors.

“One of the buses is buried under nearly 15m of mud. It will take us many hours to extricate the bus.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences.