Himachal Pradesh flash floods: Death toll reaches 6 after 1 more body found

Shimla: The death toll in Wednesday’s flash floods in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district has gone up to six as one more body has been found, officials said.

The body was found at a hydro-project site near the Manuni Khad area in Khaniyara village, taking the total number of victims in the tragic incident to six, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Kangra, Aditi Singh, said on Friday evening.

Rains hampered the search-and-rescue operations jointly undertaken by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), police and home guards. The search for two more persons would resume on Saturday morning, Singh said.

Lovely from Chamba district, who was rescued by the search teams from a forest area near the project site on Thursday, said there were 13 labourers at a camp, five of whom ran towards the hills while the rest were swept away by the gushing waters.

“We saw the floods coming and screamed to alert the people below, before running to safety,” Daya Kishan, a labourer, said.

The project work was suspended due to rain and the workers were resting in temporary shelters near the site when floodwaters from Manuni Khad and nearby drains rushed towards them, sweeping several of them away, the officials said.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Dharamshala Sudhir Sharma alleged that the

shelters were built near a stream and not shifting the labourers to safer areas when the weather deteriorated pointed towards negligence, which he said should be probed.

Five persons are missing after cloudbursts and flash floods in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra and Kullu districts on Wednesday.

The search teams are also looking for three persons who went missing at Rehla Bihal in Kullu district after a cloudburst, the officials said.