Torrential rain in India's Himalayas triggered landslides over the weekend that have killed at least 41 people, with over a dozen trapped or missing, officials said on Monday, Ednews reports citing Reuters.
Unusually heavy rain and melting glaciers have brought deadly flash floods to the mountains of India and neighboring Pakistan and Nepal over the past year or two, with government officials increasingly blaming climate change.
Television footage from India's Himachal Pradesh state showed houses flattened by landslides, buses and cars hanging on the edge of precipices after roads gave way and hundreds of people at rescue sites as emergency workers struggled to clear debris.
"Again, tragedy has befallen Himachal Pradesh, with continuous rainfall over the past 48 hours," the state's chief minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, said in a post on the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Reports of cloudbursts and landslides have emerged from various parts of the state resulting in loss of precious lives and property."
At least 41 people have died in rain-related incidents since Sunday and 13 were still missing, according to a report by the state disaster management department.
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At least 15 people died in multiple rain-related incidents in India's mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, officials said on Monday, Ednews reports citing Anadolu Agency.
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the state's chief minister, confirmed on social networking site X, formerly Twitter, about the death of seven people in a cloud burst incident in Jadon village, in the state's Solan district.
In another incident, Singh said, a temple located on a hill collapsed as a result of heavy rainfall in the state's capital Shimla, leading to the death of at least nine people.
"As of now, nine bodies have been retrieved. The local administration is diligently working to clear the debris in order to rescue individuals who may still be trapped," he said.
The topmost elected official added that "reports of cloudbursts and landslides have emerged from various parts of the state resulting in loss of precious lives and property."
"I urge the people to avoid areas prone to sliding and to stay away from water bodies," he added.
