Himachal cloudbursts: Rescue operation to trace 45 missing resume on Saturday

Shimla, Aug 3 (PTI) The rescue operation to trace about 45 people who went missing after cloudbursts in three districts of Himachal Pradesh resumed on Saturday but there has been no success so far.

A total of 410 rescuers from teams of Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), State Disaster Response Force, police (SDRF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), police and home guards are involved in the hunt with the help of drones, officials said on Saturday.

So far, eight people have died in the flash floods triggered by cloudburst in Nirmand, Sainj and Malana areas in Kullu, Mandi’s Padhar and Shimla’s Rampur subdivision on Wednesday night.

Around 300 people stranded around Shrikhand Mahadev in Kullu were safe and about 25 tourists at Malana are also being looked after well by the locals, the Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena had said on Friday.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu who visited Samej village in Rampur where over 30 people are missing on Friday had announced an immediate relief of Rs 50,000 for the victims and said they would be given Rs 5,000 monthly for rent for the next three months along with gas, food and other essential items.