Massive landslide in India's Himachal Pradesh, several feared trapped

24 August 2023 - 10:05
By Shilpa Jamkhandikar
Rescue workers remove the debris as they search for survivors after a landslide following torrential rain in Shimla in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, India, on August 14, 2023.
Image: REUTERS/Stringer Rescue workers remove the debris as they search for survivors after a landslide following torrential rain in Shimla in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, India, on August 14, 2023.

A massive landslide in India's Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday has left several people feared trapped under the debris, local media reported.

Television channels showed images of several buildings on a hillside come crashing down, along with trees and rubble, in the state's Kullu region.

The state's chief minister said the administration had identified the risk and evacuated a commercial building two days earlier.

Landslides in Himachal Pradesh killed more than 50 people earlier this month, with houses flattened and buses and cars hanging on the edge precipices after roads gave way.

Unusually heavy rain and melting glaciers have brought deadly flash floods to the mountains of India and neighbouring Pakistan and Nepal in recent years, with government officials increasingly blaming climate change.

Reuters