Sixteen people have died and at least 20 missing after cloudbursts led to heavy rains and flash floods in the hills of northern India, officials said on Thursday.
Nine bodies had been found so far and about 19 people were still missing from Honjar Dacchan village in Jammu and Kashmir, a senior police official, Shafqat Bhat said.
Score of houses, buildings, a bridge and a mosque were damaged by the floods and landslides triggered by the cloudburst in the early hours of Wednesday.
Seventeen people had been rescued from the debris and were being treated in hospitals.
Search and rescue operations had been affected by inclement weather.
The army had joined the state disaster response force and police personnel.
National disaster response force teams were also on their way to the remote site in Kishtwar district.
In a separate incident on Wednesday evening, 12 labourers were washed away in flash flood triggered by a similar cloudburst in the Lahaul-Spiti region of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh state.
Seven bodies had been found and two injured people rescued, police official Manav Verma said. Three labourers were still missing.
The floods had damaged roads and a bridge in the area leaving scores of vehicles stranded, Verma said.
Landslides and floods are common during India’s monsoon season, which runs from June to the end of September.
The rains are vital for agriculture, but often cause immense destruction to property and lead to the loss of hundreds of lives. (dpa/NAN)
