Srinagar, Aug. 6: One hundred and thirteen people have been killed and over 400 injured in flash floods triggered by sudden overnight heavy rain, officials said on Friday. The toll, in the biggest natural catastrophe in Leh’s living history, is likely to go up as more than 50 people, including many children, are missing.
Officials said late Friday evening that more than 400 people have been injured. Rescue operations, suspended for the night, will be resumed at first light on Saturday. National Disaster Response Force men were being flown from Chandigarh to assist the Leh administration in rescue operations.
Till late Friday evening 113 bodies had been retrieved from the debris of flattened homes or were found dotted over the hills and inundated roads following the cloudburst and the mudslides set off by it.
Communications in Ladakh’s main town, situated at an altitude of 3,524 metres, have been severed. The Army, which has a heavy presence in the region, has joined police and paramilitary personnel in rescue and relief operations but officials said the effort is being hampered by gushing water and debris.
[Eyewitnesses and other sources fear that the death toll could cross 500 as several far-flung villages were yet to be accessed by rescue teams, PTI reports. A contractor told senior state administration officials that 150 of his labourers were missing from Shyong village where he had lodged them.