Himachal Pradesh: At least seven dead, nine missing after heavy rains trigger flash floods

At least seven people are feared dead and nine reported missing in flash floods triggered by heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh, a senior disaster management official said on Wednesday. State Disaster Management director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said four people are feared dead in Kullu district and one person is feared dead in Chamba. Two people were killed and nine are missing in Lahaul-Spiti. In Kullu, a 26-year-old woman, Poonam, and her four-year-old son Nikunj were swept away in Brahamganga, a tributary of the Parvati river, near Manikaran around 6:15 am on Wednesday due to a sudden surge in the water level, he said. Another woman and a man were also swept away in the flash floods, he added. In Lahaul’s Udaipur, two tents of labourers and a private JCB were washed away in the flash floods triggered by a cloudburst around 8 pm on Tuesday, Mokhta said. Two tents of labourers and a private JCB have been washed away, he said, adding that a 19-year-old labourer, Mohammad Altaaf of Jammu and Kashmir, was injured and rushed to a nearby hospital. Two people were killed and nine labourers are still missing, he said. In Chamba, a JCB helper has been washed away in the flash floods triggered by heavy rains in Chaned tehsil on the Chamba-Pathankot road, he said. He said police and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) teams were dispatched to search for the missing people but the heavy flow of water hampered the search operation on Tuesday night. The search operation resumed on Wednesday morning. Earlier on Tuesday, several people were evacuated from Lahaul-Spiti’s Darcha village after the water level rose in the Bhaga river following a heavy spell of rain, Mokhta said. According to the Darcha police check-post, the water level in the river increased considerably due to the heavy rainfall, damaging three shops near the river bank. People living near low-lying areas have been safely evacuated by the police, the official added.