Powerful torrents driven by intense rain smashed into a Himalayan mountain village in Indian-administered Kashmir and killed at least 46 people on Thursday, a top disaster management official told AFP.
It is the second major deadly flooding disaster in India this month.
“The news is grim,” Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a statement, reporting a “cloudburst” of intense rain that had hit the Kishtwar district.
Crowds gathered at a Kishtwar hospital while people carried some of the injured on stretchers.
“Death toll has increased to 46,” a top disaster management official Mohammad Irshad told AFP, adding “some people are missing but we can’t say how many.”
Irshad said 150 wounded people were also rescued from the disaster site, “50 of whom are severely injured”. All were sent to nearby hospitals.
Sushil Kumar, a resident of nearby Atholi village, told AFP: “I saw at least 15 dead bodies brought to the local hospital.”
Pankaj Kumar Sharma, district commissioner of Kishtwar, said earlier that “there are chances of more dead bodies being found”.
– Pilgrims’ kitchen washed away –
Chisoti village, where the disaster hit, is on a Hindu pilgrimage route to Machail Mata shrine.
Officials said a large makeshift kitchen where there were more than 100 pilgrims — who were not registered with local authorities — was completely washed away.
Rescue teams were facing difficulty reaching the area and soldiers also joined the effort.
The region’s weather department has issued an alert for more heavy rain and floods, asking residents to remain vigilant.
Roads had already been damaged by days of heavy storms. The area lies more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) by road from the region’s main city Srinagar.
“Every possible assistance will be provided to those in need,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
Floods on August 5 overwhelmed the Himalayan town of Dharali in India’s Uttarakhand state and buried it in mud. The likely death toll from that disaster is more than 70 but has yet to be confirmed.
Floods and landslides are common during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency and severity.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said last year that increasingly intense floods and droughts are a “distress signal” of what is to come as climate change makes the planet’s water cycle ever more unpredictable.
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