Flash floods claim lives of over 130 people

Military helicopters and armed forces personnel led rescue operations in India’s northern Uttrakhand state yesterday where flash floods have claimed some 138 lives.

“It is feared that the loss of life could be much higher” said prime minister Manmohan Singh after conducting an aerial survey of the affected region in the Himalayan foothills, some 360km north of the federal capital New Delhi.

Officials said more than 10,000 people, mostly Hindu pilgrims, had been rescued over the past two days but tens of thousands of people are still stranded. Pilgrims travel in droves to Uttarakhand to visit the numerous ancient Hindu shrines and temples high up in the mountains before they shut down for the monsoon rains which normally begin in early July.

The worst hit is the Kedarnath temple area which received 380mm or 14 inches of rain over the past week, almost five times the average for this period junior home minister R P N Singh said.

News channels showed pictures of roads, houses, multistoreyed buildings, cars and bridges being swept away or damaged after many rivers burst their banks. One dramatic image was of a three-storey apartment building toppling slowly into a river and being carried away by the surging flood waters which also swept away its helipad. Officials said 40 small hotels on the banks of the Mandakini river had either disappeared or been badly damaged.