Sirmaur landslide 'took a bus' along with portion of mountain; video viral
Sirmaur deputy commissioner Ram Kumar Gautam said travellers were alerted when they saw a minor landslide first and stopped their vehicles. No casualties were reported in the incident.
A landslide in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district took away a huge portion of the mountain on Friday. The incident also took away a section of the road, which connected Paonta Sahib.
The video of the landslide went viral on social media on Friday. It shows rocks and debris falling down the mountain as the landslide starts.
Watch the video below:
An eyewitness is heard telling those standing on the highway, which later caved in, to back their vehicles. Another man says that the landslide has "taken a bus".
No casualties were reported in the landslide, which carried away a portion of National Highway 707. The site was less than 30 kilometres from Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur district.
Sirmaur deputy commissioner Ram Kumar Gautam said travellers were alerted when they saw a minor landslide first and stopped their vehicles.
Paonta Sahib, which houses a Sikh shrine, is still accessible. Traffic has been diverted to a road passing through Uttarakhand's Vikasnagar from Kaffota.
It will take at least a fortnight to reconstruct the road, Gautam said. A Geological Survey of India (GSI) team has visited the spot to study the situation.
Heavy rainfall this week in Himachal Pradesh has triggered other, smaller landslides as well along with cloudburst.
In Lahaul-Spiti, at least nine people were killed and seven others missing after a cloudburst. According to authorities, 168 tourists are still trapped in the upper reaches.
On Friday, officials also reported that three trekkers are missing in the district.