At least three people were killed and 150 others missing after a river inundated a river in northern India by a rupture of a glacier in the Himalayas on Sunday, police said.
We identified at least three bodies at the bottom of the river. A Uttarakhand state police spokesman told AFP that our latest assessment brings the number of missing people to 150. There are 16 or 17 people stuck in a tunnel.
A piece of glacier split off and slid into Daliganga River. A sudden surge of water washed away everything in its path in this narrow canyon, including a dam, bridges and roads, according to photos taken by terrified locals.
Most of the 150 missing employees are at the Tapuvan power plant, near a dam destroyed by floods.
Rescue teams are struggling to quickly evacuate dozens of villages in the area and reach the tunnel where people have been trapped.
Uttarakhand is an Indian state located in the Himalayas where the Ganges River rises.
Most of the evacuated villages lie on hills overlooking the river, a tributary of the Ganges.
Authorities have emptied two dams as a precaution to prevent rough waters from swelling the Ganges River in the towns of Rishikesh and Haridwar, and forbade residents of both cities from approaching the shores of the Holy River.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter: “India stands with the people of Uttarakhand and the nation is praying for the safety of everyone in this region.”
“Extreme twitteraholic. Passionate travel nerd. Hardcore zombie trailblazer. Web fanatic. Evil bacon geek.”