Uttarkashi: Landslide burries vehicles; four dead

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Four pilgrims from Madhya Pradesh died and seven more were injured when a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall buried three vehicles near the Gangnani bridge on the Gangotri National Highway here, officials said on Tuesday, news agency PTI reported.

According to PTI, the incident took place on Monday night when the vehicles came under debris due to the landslide from the hill near the bridge. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief over the incident and urged people to avoid unnecessary travel during heavy rains.

Three of the four bodies have been recovered and efforts are underway to pull out the fourth from the rubble, Bhatwadi Sub-Collector Chatar Singh Chauhan said.
Two of the seven people injured are in a serious condition, he said.

Chauhan said teams of police and the State Disaster Response Force reached the spot for relief and rescue operations as soon as the information came in. Local people and personnel of the Border Roads Organisation also joined the relief work.

Torrential rain and strong winds triggered landslides and flash floods in several parts of north India earlier on Sunday, with 15 people dying in separate incidents. Heavy rain warnings have been issued for certain areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh. In Delhi, which recorded its highest rainfall in a single day in July since 1982, the government issued a flood warning after Haryana discharged over 1 lakh cusecs of water into the Yamuna river. Delhi received 153 mm of rain in 24 hours ending 8.30 on Sunday.

Five people were killed in landslides in Himachal Pradesh, where a red alert has been issued for seven districts.

In Uttarakhand, three people died on Sunday after their jeep fell into the Ganga river amid a landslide. Officials said there were 11 pilgrims from Kedarnath in the jeep. Five people have been rescued, while a search is on for three others.

A couple was killed in Udham Singh Nagar district when two houses collapsed.

Two people were also killed in Jammu & Kashmir after a landslide hit a passenger bus in Doda district. A resident of Kargil was killed when a boulder rolling down a hillock hit and buried his vehicle near, officials said.

Widespread rainfall was also reported in Uttar Pradesh where a 10-year-old girl died on Sunday when a tree branch fell on the tin shed of her house in Kaushambi. In Muzaffarnagar, a woman and her six-year-old daughter were killed after the roof of their house collapsed due to heavy rain.

(With inputs from PTI)