Rain tears up Himachal Pradesh, 51 killed

The railway track hangs after a landslide near Summer Hill in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, on Monday. Pics/PTI

At least 51 people were killed in Himachal Pradesh, 14 of them in two Shimla landslips including one at a temple as rain wreaked havoc in the state, triggering landslides that blocked key roads and brought down houses, officials said on Monday.

As many as 19 people died in various rain-related incidents in Mandi district, Deputy Commissioner Arindam Chaudhary told PTI.

More people are feared trapped under the debris of the Shiv temple in Shimla's Summer Hill area. The shrine was crowded with devotees, offering prayers on an important day of the holy month of Sawan.

(From left) the Doon Defense College building crashes, in Uttarakhand; rescue work on after a temple collapses in Shimla; HP CM Sukhvinder Sukhu meets the victims, in Solan district

The toll in the incident may rise, the officials said.

In Solan, another badly affected district, 11 people including seven members of a family have been killed. Two houses in the district were washed away following the cloudburst. Seven people were killed, a cop said.

According to the state emergency operation centre, 621 roads were closed in the state because of the calamity. The weather office issued a yellow alert for Tuesday.

3 killed in Uttarakhand

Torrential rain ravaged Uttarakhand on Monday, destroying buildings and causing landslides that breached the national highways to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri shrines and left three people dead and 10 others missing.

Located on the banks of Song river near Lalpul, the building of the Dehradun Defence Academy caved in on Monday morning. No one was hurt as the building had been vacated, Tehri Sub Divisional Magistrate Ashish Ghildiyal said.

Rivers above danger mark

Swollen rivers inundated many districts with surging rain water entering buildings and submerging vehicles.

River Ganga was flowing above the danger mark in Tehri, Haridwar and Rishikesh. Alaknanda, Mandakini and Ganga rivers were flowing above the danger level at Rudraprayag, Shrinagar and Devprayag, the disaster control room here said.

The Bihar government on Monday sounded an alert in view of the discharge of over 4 lakh cusecs of water from the Kosi barrage, following heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of Nepal.

People living in low lying areas and close to embankments were being relocated to safer places, State Water Resources Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said. He dispelled fears of a repeat of 2008 floods in the region, caused by a change in course of the river. It had claimed nearly 500 lives and affected close to three million people.

The minister, however, added, "The discharge recorded at the barrage now is far greater than what it was in 2008. The situation is not similar, but there is a greater level of preparedness."

10
No. of people missing in U'khand

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