375 people injured, hundreds missing. Army sets up makeshift shelters, hospitals, jawans distribute relief, rescue people.
Overnight flash floods have killed at least 103 people in Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir and the army has been called in for rescue operations. More than 340 people have been injured and hundreds , including foreigners, are reported to be missing.
The floods, which were triggered by unexpected heavy rains, damaged houses telephone towers and government buildings. Leh has been cut off. Its highways — Srinagar-Leh and Leh-Manali are heavily damaged and its airport tarmac has been flooded. The slush is hampering air operations.
An eyewitness DNA managed to reach over the phone said sheets of water poured in from a cloudburst at 2 am. “We’ve never seen such a thing. There was a terrible sound at the time of the cloudburst. It was followed by rain and in the next two hours everything was devastated. Thousands of people are still missing and hundreds have died,” Tsewang Gyatsu, a restaurant owner at Leh, said.
A distance of 150 kilometres — from Pang village on the Rohtang-Leh highway up to Nimmu on the Leh-Srinagar highway has been hit, a defence spokesman said.
Massive rescue operations have been started by the army, police and paramilitary forces. The administration has set up shelters for the displaced at police lines.
“Five villages — Nimoo, Basgo, Shapoo, Faing and Ney apart from Leh town have been badly hit. Soon after the catastrophe, our police men joined the rescue team. They built temporary shelters and set up langars (free kitchens) for people,” Kuldeep Khoda, J&K director-general of police, said.
The floods have submerged Leh’s main hospital, bus stand and telephone exchange. The office of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), a camp of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and a number of government offices have been damaged,” a police spokesman said.
A total of 25 jawans are missing in Nobra valley where a landslide struck their post.
Around 22 columns of jawans are trying to help people. “Nearly 400 critically-injured people have been taken to makeshift hospitals set up by the army,” he said.
The spokesman said helicopters at Kargil, Chandigarh and Udhampur are ready to fly to Leh whenever needed.
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