Heavy rains continued to wreak havoc in Himachal Pradesh amid red alert warning of heavy rain in many parts of the state on Wednesday.
Four more bodies were recovered from the debris of the two buildings that were hit by a landslide in Sundernagar on Tuesday night, taking the total toll of people killed in the incident to seven, including four members of a family.
Two houses collapsed in Kullu’s Akhada Bazaar late on Tuesday following a landslide. Two people, including an NDRF jawan Narinder, 37, and a Kashmiri youth Waqar Ahmad, 24, are feared to be buried under the debris. An operation is on to rescue the trapped from the debris.
On Tuesday night a landslide hit BBMB Colony in Sundernagar. The three bodies recovered as per officials are of the mother and son, identified as Surinder Kaur and Gurpreet Singh. Both the bodies were buried in the house and were taken out by cutting open the roof. Apart from this, the body of a person was found buried along with a scooter. He was identified as Prakash Sharma, a resident of Dadhiyal.
The search operation is still on as there is a possibility of someone else being with the scooter rider, while the body of an occupant of a Tata Sumo was found buried in the landslide.
On Tuesday night, the bodies of two women and a two-year-old were found.
{{/usCountry}}On Tuesday night, the bodies of two women and a two-year-old were found.
{{/usCountry}}A part of the Vishwakarma temple in Shimla’s Rampur collapsed due to incessant rain.
Five trucks parked on the roadside at Wangtu on National Highway-5 in Kinnaur were damaged due to stones falling from the hill.
Fifteen houses of Kunduni village in Jogindernagar sub division in Mandi district were evacuated on Wednesday morning after landslides in the area posed a threat. The villagers were shifted to a safer place along with their cattle.
The State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said 1,162 roads were closed in the state, including seven national highways (NH).
The NH-3 from Mandi to Dharampur was blocked in Mandi and Kullu, while NH-5, also known as the Old Hindustan-Tibet road connecting Kalka to Kinnaur, was blocked in Kinnaur. NH-707 from Paonta Sahib to Hatkoti was blocked in Sirmour and NH-21 from Chandigarh to Manali was blocked in Bilaspur, while NH-205 from Kharar to Swarghat was blocked in Bilaspur. NH-505 from Khab to Gramphu in Lahaul-Spiti was blocked and NH-305 from Aut-Sainj was blocked in Kullu due to landslides.
Since the onset of monsoon on June 20, the state has witnessed 95 flash floods, 45 cloudbursts and 122 major landslides.
Since June this year, disasters in the state have claimed 341 lives, including 182 deaths, due to rain-related incidents and 159 in road accidents, according to the SEOC.
As many as 2,477 power transformers and 720 water supply schemes were disrupted across the state, the SEOC said.