Car washed away, nine tourists from Punjab feared drowned in Uttarakhand

According to the district disaster control room, a rescue operation was started as soon as the matter was reported to it around 6am

Nine tourists from Punjab’s Patiala were feared drowned while one person was rescued after a multi-utility vehicle they were travelling in was washed away in an overflowing river at Ramnagar in Uttarakhand’s Nainital district on Friday morning, officials said.

One person was rescued after the car was washed away. (Sourced)

According to the district disaster control room, a rescue operation was started as soon as the matter was reported to it around 6am. Officials said that the bodies of four people have been recovered. The tourists were returning to Patiala after a stay at a resort in Nainital’s Dhela when the vehicle got washed away.

The river was in spate amid incessant rains across Uttarakhand over the past few days. The India Meteorological Department’s Dehradun Centre, in its morning bulletin on Thursday, said that heavy to very heavy rainfall was expected to continue at a few places across the state on Friday. It added that extremely heavy rainfall was expected at isolated places in Uttarakhand on Saturday apart from heavy to very heavy rainfall elsewhere in the Himalayan state.