Kinnaur landslide: 13 bodies recovered; rescue operations underway

Mangalore Today News Network

Kinnaur, Aug 12, 2021: At least 13 people were killed and 60 others feared trapped under debris after several vehicles, including a bus carrying 24 passengers, were hit by a landslide on a highway near Nigulsari in Himachal’s Kinnaur district on Wednesday, officials said.Speaking to The Indian Express, officials cited eyewitness accounts of large boulders tumbling down the mountain side around 12.45 pm and on to NH-5 from Kinnaur to Shimla. At least 13 people, including the state transport bus’s driver Mahinder Pal and conductor Gulab Singh, have been rescued and taken to a local hospital, they said.

 

Teams of ITBP, along with units of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), are engaged in rescue operations that continue to be hindered by falling rocks, officials said.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said 60 people were feared trapped under the debris. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have assured all help from the Centre. Thakur said that the Army, too, has offered help including the deployment of a helicopter.

Last month, nine people — eight tourists and their driver — were killed after a boulder racing down a hill during a landslide smashed into their tempo traveller in Sangla valley of Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh.

Among those killed was a 27-year-old naval officer from Darri in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district and his US-based friend; a 34-year-old woman ayurveda doctor from Jaipur; and three members of a family — a young chartered accountant, his sister, and their mother — from Sikar in Rajasthan.

Courtesy:Indian Express