Kinnaur landslide: 3 more bodies located, toll mounts to 28

State Disaster Management Authority director Sudesh Mokta said rescuers were unable to trace one of the vehicles, a car, which went missing after the landslide. The number of passengers in it also remains unknown

The toll from the landslide in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district rose to 28 as rescuers located three more bodies from the rubble on the seventh day of the search and rescue operation on Tuesday, officials said.

Rescue work in progress in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh on August 13. (File photo)

“Three more bodies have been traced in the rubble and it would take three to four hours to retrieve them,” said Kinnaur deputy commissioner Abid Hussain Sadiq.

State Disaster Management Authority director Sudesh Mokta said rescuers were unable to trace one of the vehicles, a car, which went missing after the landslide. The number of passengers in it also remains unknown.

Army, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, and National Disaster Response Force as well as sniffer dogs have been involved in the rescue work.

Rescuers have had a tough time because of shooting stones that have hampered rescue efforts.

A three-member team of experts from the Geological Survey of India visited the landslide site on Sunday to survey the hilltop and suggested ways to deal with the challenge.

A Himachal Road Transport Corporation bus on its way from Kinnaur to Haridwar was among the vehicles buried under the landslide on August 11.