ANKARA: At least a dozen people are reported missing after a landslide due to monsoon rains in a Himalayan Indian state, officials said on Friday.
The landslide took place in the Gaurikund area of Rudraprayag in the Uttarakhand state on Thursday night, on the route leading to the Hindu shrine of Kedarnath.
“There are reports of 13-14 people missing. The rescue operation is underway and so far we haven’t located them. Search and rescue operations are going on,“ Vishakha Ashok, the Rudraprayag district police chief, told Anadolu Agency over the phone.
She said the area is also seeing heavy rainfall.
Nandan Singh Rajwar, a disaster management official in the district, told Anadolu that the landslide took place on Thursday at midnight.
“Some shops were in the area, and they also suffered damage,“ he said.
Pushkar Singh Dhami, Uttarakhand’s chief minister, said due to heavy rains, landslides have caused damage to both people and property in Gaurikund.
“The team of disaster management and district administration is fully engaged in relief and rescue work. The government stands completely with the disaster victims,“ he wrote on the X platform, formerly Twitter. -Bernama