More than 30 people are dead and many others are trapped after heavy monsoon rains triggered floods and landslides in India’s Himalayan region.
Rescuers on Monday tried to free people trapped beneath piles of debris, after torrential downpours that began over the weekend in mountainous Himachal Pradesh state flooded roads and washed away homes.
A cloudburst in the state’s Solan district on Sunday night killed nine people in the area.
Twelve more bodies were pulled from beneath mud and debris following two landslides in Shimla, the state’s capital, authorities told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.
Four other people were killed in heavy rains and a landslide in the state’s Hamirpur district.
Rescuers were working on Monday to urgently free those still trapped beneath debris in Shimla, said Himachal Pradesh’s chief minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
Authorities said the figure could rise as rescue work continues.
Homes in Solan have been washed away and roads flooded in the incessant rain, police told PTI, while in Shimla landslides brought down a Hindu temple.
All schools and colleges in the state have been shut and more than 700 inundated roads have been closed.
India’s weather department warned that moderate to heavy rainfall will hit various parts of the state on Monday.
It had issued a red alert over the weekend for intense downpours in neighboring Uttarakhand state, where 60 people have died in monsoon rains this season, PTI reported.
In July, record monsoon showers killed more than 100 people over two weeks in parts of northern India, including in Himachal Pradesh, which was the worst hit.
Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in India‘s Himalayan north during the June-September monsoon season, and can affect thousands of people in India’s mountainous regeions.
Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers there.Last year, flash floods killed nearly 200 people and washed away houses in Uttarakhand.
