Uttarakhand landslide: Body of woman trapped under building debris pulled out, search on for daughter

Tehri Garhwal (Uttarakhand) [India], July 27 (ANI): Rescue personnel on Saturday pulled out the body of a woman who got burried under debris of a building, which was hit by a landslide in Ghansali in Uttarakhand in the early hours today.

The woman and her daughter got trapped under debris of their home that collapsed in the landslide triggered by heavy rain in village Toli.

The disaster control room was notified at around 3 am today that the two were buried under the debris of a building at around 1:30 am due to a landslide.

The District Information Officer of Tehri Garhwal said that the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Tehsildar, Patwari, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Public Works Department (PWD) team, Nagarpalika team and health team ambulance immediately reached the incident spot.

The SDRF team under the leadership of Chief Constable Kuldeep Singh from Post Ghansali reached the spot and started the rescue work.

“During an intensive search by SDRF and District Police, the body of a woman Sarita Devi buried in the debris has been recovered,” SDRF stated.

Search operation is underway for her daughter.

Further details are awaited.

On Thursday, the Uttarakhand police cleared the debris near Gulabkoti in the Joshimath area on the Badrinath National Highway, which was blocked due to debris after the landslide.

The Badrinath Highway was closed earlier at Pagal Nala and Gulabkoti due to falling boulders and debris from the hillside. The falling debris was due to the continuous rain that has lashed the Chamoli district.

Heavy rains in parts of Uttarakhand over the past few days have triggered landslides in the hills, with the highway to Badrinath blocked at many points by rubble on several occasions.