At least 14 people have died and 102 others, including 22 Army personnel, are missing after a cloudburst over Lhonak Lake in north Sikkim triggered flash floods in the Teesta River basin on Wednesday.
Furthermore, over 20,000 people have been affected due to the calamity. Officials told PTI that one of the 23 Army men who had gone missing in the morning was rescued later.
As many as 3,000 tourists from various parts of the country were reported to be stranded in different parts of the state, PTI quoted Sikkim Chief Secretary VB Pathak as saying.
The cloudburst occurred in the early hours of Wednesday and the swirling waters swept away parts of a dam at Chungthang, which is the state’s largest hydropower project, worsening the flooding downstream.
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The Sikkim government has declared the calamity a disaster under the Disaster Management Act.
Several teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were pressed in for rescue and relief operations. Most of those reported missing and injured due to the flashfloods in Sikkim were reported from Chungthang in Mangan district, and Dikchu, Singtam in Gangtok district and Rangpo in Pakyong district.
In addition to this, parts of National Highway-10, the main link between Sikkim and the rest of the country, were washed away, while a flood alert was issued for North Bengal and Bangladesh through which the Teesta River flows.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang to take stock of the situation in the state and assured him of all possible support. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also prayed for the well-being of the missing Army personnel.
(With inputs from agencies)