Water and sludge torrents devastated a Himalayan village in Indian cashmere on Thursday. The rescuers are continuing their research this Friday. Some “60 people are identified as dead”, and 80 others are missing, told AFP on Friday Mohammad Irshad, an emergency services.
These consequences of heavy rains devastated the village of Chisoti, in the Kishtwar district, about 200 km from Srinagar, the capital of the Kashmir under Indian administration.
Large machines were sent during the night to dig into the rubble and soldiers were mobilized in reinforcement of the first rescuers, noted an AFP photographer.
Pilgrimage stage
The village of Chisoti is located on the road to a Hindu pilgrimage leading to the sanctuary of Machail Mata. A large makeshift cuisine, where more than a hundred pilgrims were when the flood took place, was completely swept away, the authorities said.
According to the director of the Kishtwar district hospital, Yudhvir Kotwal, more than 100 people had been admitted since the disaster.
“Most of the wounded suffer from head trauma, bone fractures and broken ribs,” he told AFP, adding that “bodies continued to be found under the mud and the rubble”.
Arun Shah, 35, had just finished his pilgrimage with his family when the flood occurred. “It was horrible,” he told AFP on the phone. “Rocks and a torrent of water came down from the mountain. We were all separated, “he added.
Second major disaster
This is the second major disaster caused by deadly floods in India in August.
On August 5, floods had swept the Himalayan city of Dharali, in the Indian State of Uttarakhand, and covered it with mud. The results of this disaster, which has not yet been confirmed, is estimated at more than 70 dead.
In Pakistan, the balance sheet goes to 50 dead in 24 hours
Torrential rains killed 50 people in 24 hours in northern Pakistan, the authorities report on Friday, bringing more than 300 the number of deaths, for almost half of the children, since the start of the monsoon in late June.
The victims were “killed in the collapse of their house” or “when their vehicles were taken in landslides,” a spokesperson for the disaster management authority.
The majority of deaths were identified in the mountain province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, border of Afghanistan.
