Indian Air Force rescued 50 IIT-students on a trek in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul valley , over 500 people remain stuck in other areas in Lahaul and Spiti district, officials said Tuesday.
The number of deaths in the state, hit by heavy rains – and snowfall in Lahaul and Spiti – has risen to 10 with four more deaths being reported on Tuesday. A team of six trekkers from New Delhi and Shimla is missing in Kinnaur district, officials said. A rescue operation will be launched Wednesday.
Heavy rains had triggered flash floods and landslides in the hill states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, killing at least 11 people on Monday. There were rains also in Punjab and Uttarakhand.
No fresh casualties were reported in the other states on Tuesday. But in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district, two labourers were killed and four others injured when a rock fell on their home in Nerwa’s Bihari Colony.
Also, two people were killed when a car skidded off a slippery road in the state’s Kinnaur district.
There were only scattered showers in the state on Tuesday and the Met department predicted that the weather will hold on Wednesday as well.
But several roads, including portions of the Chandigarh-Manali route, remained blocked due to landslides and snowfall.
Apart from the rescue of the entire group of trekkers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, the IAF also rescued a German couple trapped in a blizzard while trekking from Ringdum to Dibling near Lahaul-Spiti.
The IAF has sent three helicopters to Himachal Pradesh, and the Centre has assured more choppers if needed, the chief minister said.
They are being deployed to rescue over 500 people still stranded in Lahaul-Spiti. About 300 of them were trapped in Baralacha area and the remaining 200 in Koksar, an official said.
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