25 labourers trapped in U'khand avalanche
Snow, rain throw life out of gear in north India; rains pounded Jammu and Himachal Pradesh for the third day on Friday, prompting authorities to close schools in several districts
New Delhi: Twenty five labourers were buried alive in an avalanche in Uttarakhand, two persons were killed in Jammu and arterial roads were cut off as heavy snowfall and rains hit parts of north India on Friday. The threat of another avalanche loomed over the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh.
Rains pounded Jammu and Himachal Pradesh for the third day on Friday, prompting authorities to close schools in several districts. The mercury dropped in most parts of Punjab and Haryana due to the rain.
Forty-one BRO workers were trapped under an avalanche near the high altitude border village of Mana in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, officials said. The snowslide had initially buried 57 men but 32 were rescued. The avalanche buried a BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath, Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said.
Mana, three kilometres from Badrinath, is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres. Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have left for the spot amid continuing snowfall and rain. In Jammu, a woman and her son were killed when a boulder from a hillock hit their two-wheeler near Moungari in Udhampur district.
Eleven labourers were rescued by a joint team of police and the SDRF from the Ujh river in the Rajbagh area of Kathua district early Friday. They were staying in a shed adjoining a construction site and their lives were in danger due to a swollen water body, officials said.
The driver of a dumper was also rescued by police and SDRF personnel after his vehicle was submerged in the Tawi river in the Niki Tawi area, they said. High altitude areas received moderate to heavy snowfall, prompting the closure of various roads.
The strategic 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway, which was closed around 7 pm on Thursday, also remained closed due to snow accumulation between Ramsoo and Qazigund, and shooting stones, landslides and mudslides at various places between Nashri and Banihal. Overnight snowfall affected rail, air and road connectivity in Kashmir, according to officials.
