At least 60 people were killed and hundreds injured after rare rainfall triggered flash floods yesterday in an area of Indian Kashmir popular with foreign fans of high-altitude adventure sports.
The overnight floods, prompted by an intense cloudburst, tore through Leh, the main town in the Buddhist-dominated Ladakh region, causing what state Tourism Minister Nawang Rigzin Jora described as “unprecedented” devastation.
Television footage showed scenes reminiscent of an earthquake, with collapsed buildings, downed power lines and residents scrabbling knee-deep through mud to try to dig survivors out of the rubble.
PHOTO: AFP
The floods hit Leh and surrounding villages without warning during the night when most residents were asleep.
“So far we have some 60 dead,” Jora said.
He said the death toll was likely to rise “significantly” with dozens still missing in Leh and rescue workers unable to reach some of the affected districts nearby.
At least 200 people were reported injured.
“The devastation is unprecedented,” Jora said, adding that the military had been called in to help with the relief efforts.
The mountainous region, in the southeastern part of Muslim-majority Kashmir, is popular with foreign adventure tourists interested in Himalayan trekking and river-running.
August is the peak tourist season in Ladakh, which experiences extreme weather conditions and is largely inaccessible during the harsh winter.
Some 3,500m above sea level, Leh is surrounded by high-altitude desert where heavy rainfall is uncommon.
The town was effectively cut off yesterday, with the flood waters washing away sections of the main highways to the popular backpacker destination of Manali and the Kashmiri summer capital, Srinagar.
“So far, we have no reports of any tourists among the dead, but some are stranded on the Leh-Manali road. The army has sent rescue teams there,” Jora said.
Indian Air Force spokeswoman Priya Joshi said that Leh airport, which is owned by the military but operates civilian flights, had been swamped and the runway was covered in mud.
“It should be made operational later Friday,” she said, adding that helicopters were flying sorties to assess the extent of the damage, which another air force officer described as “extensive”.
Daily temperature fluctuations in Leh are dramatic. In the summer months, the thermometer can plunge to minus 3ºC during the night and then rise as high as 30ºC during the day.
Meanwhile, bad weather in Pakistan grounded helicopters carrying emergency supplies to the flood-ravaged northwest yesterday amid warnings the worst monsoon rains in decades would bring more destruction to a nation already reeling from Islamist violence.
US military personnel waiting to fly Chinooks to the upper reaches of the hard-hit Swat Valley were frustrated by the storms, which dumped more rain on a region where many thousands are already living in tents or crammed into public buildings.
Over the last week, floods have spread from the northwest down Pakistan, killing around 1,500 people and affecting more than 3 million others. Much of the destruction has come from the mighty Indus River, which in better times irrigates vast swaths of farmland.
Some 30,000 Pakistan soldiers are rebuilding bridges, delivering food and setting up relief camps in the northwest, which is the main battleground in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Foreign countries and the UN have donated millions of US dollars.
Also helping out are Islamist charities, including at least one with links to a banned militant organization.
The government has come under criticism for not doing enough, especially since Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari chose to go ahead with a trip to Europe at the height of the crisis.
Amal Masud, a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Management Authority, said all helicopters currently stationed in the northwest were grounded because of poor weather.
Saleh Farooqi, head of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority in southern Sindh Province, said authorities had evacuated about 200,000 people from areas where floodwaters could hit, but many more were still living in the danger zone.
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