Shimla: Three more bodies have been were recovered from the site of the landslide in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district. The bodies took the landslide death toll to 17. In a separate accident two people were injured Friday after stones falling down a mountainside hit their bus near the area, a senior official said.
Search and rescue operation had to be suspended for several hours Friday as boulders were falling in between at the landslide site near Chaura village in the district, Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Abid Hussain Sadiq informed.
Himachal Pradesh disaster management director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said that stones falling down a mountainside hit an HRTC bus, which was crossing the site around 4.40pm. The stones injured a woman and a boy. The bus was on its way to Reckong Peo from Mandi, he added.
A major landslide was reported from Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh Wednesday, in which several vehicles, including a Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus carrying over 40 passengers, were buried under the debris.
Mokhta said search and rescue operation, which were suspended on Thursday night, resumed on Friday around 5.30 am. A Bolero and its passengers feared buried under the rubble have not been traced so far, he said. He added that it might be possible that the vehicle rolled down with the debris.
The rescue operation is being carried out jointly by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the members of local police and home guards.
On the day of the incident, 10 bodies were recovered and 13 people rescued. Earlier Wednesday, eight bodies were found trapped in a Tata Sumo taxi during the search and rescue operation. Two cars had also been recovered in a damaged condition on Wednesday, but no one was found in them.
