2 children killed in wall collapse; no trace of 20 people missing in Gaurikund landslide

DEHRADUN: Two children were killed when a wall of their house collapsed in Tehri on Sunday amid incessant rains at many places in Uttarakhand, while rescuers looked for the 20 missing people in the Gaurikund landslide incident for the third day in the inclement weather. A total of 23 people were missing after the landslide in Gaurikund in Rudraprayag. Three bodies were recovered from the debris on Friday.

“The search operation was being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), SDRF, police and fire brigade teams in difficult circumstances. So far there is no clue of the missing,” Rudraprayag’s District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said.

The operation was being carried out from Dhari Devi to Kund Barrage on the banks of the Mandakini River and the incident site to find the missing people.

Chamba Police Station Officer LS Butola said that during the heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday, the rear wall of the house belonging to Praveen Das collapsed at around 2 am, killing his two children Sneha (12) and Ranveer (12) who were sleeping in the room. Their grandfather Premdas (60), who was sleeping with the children, suffered a minor leg injury. In another incident, 20-year-old Swati Jain, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, was rescued by SDRF personnel after she was swept away in a current at Sahastradhara spot in Dehradun.