Five killed, 11 missing as rains wreak havoc in Uttarakhand

At least five people were Killed and Il others went missing after suspected cloudbursts, flash floods and mudslides lashed Chamoli, Rudra-prayag, Tehri Garhwal and Bageshwar districts of Uttarakhand on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, district officials said.

- Amit Bathla and Ajay Ramola

Several houses were damaged by debris and mud and agricultural fields were inundated. Teams from national disaster response force (NDRF), state disaster response force (SDRF), police, and revenue department mounted a rescue and relief operations, they said.

Uttarakhand has been hit hard by natural disasters this monsoon. On August 5, a devastating flash flood in the Kheer Ganga river in Uttarkashi district demolished nearly half of Dharali and neighbouring Harsil.

Chamoli's chief development officer Abhishek Tripathi said, around 2am, a house collapsed in Mopata village of Dewal tehsil after it was hit by debris from a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall, leaving two people dead and two others injured.

In Basukedar and Jakholi tehsils of Rudraprayag district, one person was killed and eight others went missing in rain-related incidents, district magistrate Prateek Jain said.