Four people died and 15 were missing after heavy rains triggered a landslide in Gaurikund, the main stop of the Kedarnath yatra, in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district late Thursday night, reported PTI, citing officials. The flash floods swept away three shops near Daat Puliya.
Rudraprayag District Magistrate Saurabh Gaharwar said that four bodies have been retrieved and the search for the missing people is underway.
The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) along with local police and disaster management teams are working on search and rescue operations, said officials. Heavy rains coupled with boulders falling intermittently from the hillsides are hampering relief and rescue efforts.
District disaster management officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said that among those missing include: a man, his wife and daughter from Nepal who ran a dhaba at the spot and three customers, also from Nepal, who had come to the eatery for dinner. Bir Bahadur, his wife Sunita, their daughter Nisha and customers Dharmaraj and Sukhram Rawat, are also missing.
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reached the Disaster Control room at the secretariat in Rudraprayag to take stock of the situation. He instructed officials to speed up the ongoing relief and rescue work on the spot.
He said an alert should be issued at all the places where there is a threat of flood due to an increase in the water levels of rivers and streams and directed officials to evacuate people living in landslide-prone areas, according to a statement by state information department.