16 killed as rain fury lashes hills
JAMMU/SHIMLA: Gushing torrents of water triggered by torrential showers in the hills of northern India flattened villages, washed away roads and cut off remote villages on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people with 30 others either injured or missing.
Authorities reported two separate cloudburst incidents — when one station receives 10cm or more of rainfall in an hour — in J&K’s Kishtwar district on Wednesday morning and Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul-Spiti on Tuesday night.
“Central government is closely monitoring the situation in the wake of the cloudbursts in Kishtwar and Kargil,” tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Nine people died and seven reported missing in two separate flash floods in Kullu and LahaulSpiti districts, officials of the state disaster management authority said. A cloudburst flooded Tozing Nullah and washed away two tents of labourers and a JCB machine in Lahaul and Spiti district.
In Chamba, a JCB helper was killed in flash floods. Five others were missing. In Kullu, a 25-year-old woman and her four-year-old son were swept away by gushing river waters.
Around 4am on Wednesday, gushing waters caught around 100 residents of Honzar village in Kishtwar district unaware
Additional director general of police Mukesh Singh said seven people died and 17 were rescued. A separate cloudburst later in the day triggered flash floods near the Amarnath shrine. No loss of life was reported.