Eight people were killed and four others injured in multiple landslides in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district on Sunday, police said.
Multiple landslides occurred near Batseri on Sangla-Chitkul road, they added.
Heavy boulders fell on a tempo traveller carrying 11 people and of them, eight were killed and three were injured, according to the police.
The police said they have started rescue operations and further details are awaited.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday expressed condolences over the death of people due to landslides in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur and said all arrangements are being made for the treatment of those injured.
It is a very painful incident, Modi said and also announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur expressed grief over the incident and said the relief work has already started. “I spoke to Kinnaur district administration and enquired about the incident and gave them proper guidelines. The administration has started relief work. The affected are being attended to immediately,” the CM wrote.
Terrifying footage of boulders coming down from the top of the mountain emerged on social media. As the boulders came down Batseri bridge in the Sangla valley of Kinnaur collapsed.
Reports said the travellers, some from Delhi, were on their way to Chitkul, which is a popular tourist spot in Himachal Pradesh. Superintendent of police, Kinnaur district, Saju Ram Rana said a rescue operation is going on.
Reports said the incident took place at around 2.15pm and as evident from the footage, locals who were recording the rockslides raised an alarm after the boulders started coming down from the top of the mountain. First, a massive splash in the Baspa river and then the bridge on the river caved in.
On Saturday, Himachal Pradesh director general of police Sanjay Kundu issued a warning on his Twitter account asking people to not venture too close to water bodies. “Himachal Pradesh is blessed with natural beauty which attracts people to rivers, rivulets, lakes and ponds,” he wrote adding 156 persons lost their lives due to drowning in the 13-month period between January 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021.
The incident comes weeks after Himachal Pradesh witnessed a flash floods in which at least three were killed and severeal got stranded.
