- Tragedy Strikes: Landslides and Floods Claim Lives in Himalayan Region
- Devastating Consequences: 72 People Dead and Homes Collapsed
- Weather Woes Continue: High Alert Issued Amidst Ongoing Rainfall
A landslip in Shimla, Himalayan foothills, closed over 700 roads and collapsed homes on film.
At least 72 people have perished in India’s Himalayan region due to landslides and flash floods caused by days of torrential rain.
Shimla is a city in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Footage from the area shows structures collapsing during a massive landslip.
Rescuers in the mountainous state, at the foothills of the Himalayas, have been working through difficult weather conditions to rescue individuals stranded under mud and debris.
It follows torrential rainfall over the weekend, which inundated more than 700 roads, washed away homes, and trapped people beneath debris mounds.
The state’s chief minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, said helicopters and motorboats have rescued around 2,000 people.
Hundreds of roads in Shimla, the state capital, remain blocked, and institutions have been ordered to close.
Sunday night, nine people were killed in the Solan region by a cloudburst, a common weather occurrence in the Himalayan region in which an extreme amount of precipitation falls in a brief period, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
They said two Shimla landslides killed 12 more people, while torrential rain and a Hamirpur landslip killed four.
Thursday, officials increased the number of fatalities to 72.
The Indian weather agency has issued a high alert for Himachal Pradesh and expects rain to continue for several days.
During the monsoon season from June to September, landslides and flooding are frequent in the northern Himalayas of India.
According to scientists, their frequency is increasing as global warming contributes to the draining of glaciers there.
In Uttarakhand, flash floods murdered nearly 200 people and destroyed homes in the past year.
