Cloudbursts kill 18 people in Jammu, HP
At least eighteen people were killed and scores of others left injured on Wednesday in a series of flash floods triggered by cloudbursts in Himachal Pradesh and the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. At least 14 persons are missing and dozens of residential houses, bridges, a mosque, standing crops and a mini power plant damaged, officials said.
Amid incessant rains, a cloudburst also hit Amarnath but no loss of life or damage to the revered cave-shrine in south Kashmir was reported.
At least, seven persons including three women, were killed, and 14 others went missing after half a dozen residential houses were swept away by flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in a remote village of J&K Kishtwar district early Wednesday. The officials said that 17 persons injured in the calamity have been rescued and removed to hospital. The State Disaster Relief Force said five of the injured persons are in critical condition and were shifted to Kishtwar’s district hospital, while others are being taken care of by two medical teams.
A spokesman of the district police said six residential houses, a ration depot and a bridge were damaged in the impact of the cloudburst that hit Hanzor village of Kishtwar’s Dachhan area. Soon teams from the J&K police, the Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and civil administration were joined by local volunteers to begin a massive rescue and relief operation which was under way, the spokesman said. A report received here said that hostile weather is hampering the rescue and relief operation.
Kishtwar SSP Shafqat Hussain Bhat said that seven bodies had been recovered till Wednesday evening. “The search for the missing persons is going on. Initial reports suggest 25-26 people are missing,” he added.
The Kishtwar police in a statement said that twenty persons were missing and identified those whose bodies were recovered by Wednesday afternoon as Saja Begum, Rakila Begum, Ghulam Nabi, Abdul Majeed, Zaytoona Begum and Tauseef Iqbal. It confirmed 17 persons have been injured in the incident.
The district officials said that as many as 19 residential houses and 21 cowsheds were washed away and two houses were partially damaged in the impact of the cloudburst and resultant flash floods and mudslides.
In Himachal nine people died in the Lahaul-Spiti flash floods in Tozing Nullah in Udaipur, two people were injured and three are still missing, while two men died in Chamba, State Disaster Management director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said. Besides, four people, including a woman, her son, a hydro project official and a Delhi tourist, are feared dead in Kullu district, he added.
In Lahaul’s Udaipur, two tents of labourers and a private JCB were washed away in the flash floods around 8 pm on Tuesday, Mr Mokhta said, adding that 12 labourers were washed away in the flash floods in Tozing Nullah in Udaipur.