New Delhi, Aug 21: At least 50 people have been killed in northern and eastern India in the last three days due to flash floods, landslides, and house collapses triggered by intense monsoon rains, news agency Reuters reported.
Himachal Pradesh has been worst hit by the monsoon rains as 22 deaths along with 12 injuries were reported on Saturday alone. The maximum damage was reported in Mandi, Kangra and Chamba districts.
Five people who went missing after heavy rains triggered flash floods and landslides in the state remained untraceable on Sunday, a senior official told PTI.
Earlier, Uttarakhand and Odisha reported four deaths each while Jharkhand registered one fatality.
At least six persons, four of them children, were killed and four others injured in separate incidents of wall collapse in Odisha on Saturday.
Heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh caused landslides and flashfloods, with officials saying 22 people, including eight members of a family, died. Ten people were injured in the state which reported 36 weather-related incidents.
In Mandi alone, 13 people died and six went missing in flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall, Deputy Commissioner Arindam Chaudhary said. Those missing are feared dead, he said. The Chakki bridge in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra collapsed due to heavy rains on Saturday, disrupting train services between Pathankot and Jogindernagar, PTI reported.
In Uttarakhand, a series of cloudbursts early Saturday killed four people, while 10 went missing as rivers breached banks, washed away bridges, and threw mud and waters inside houses, forcing evacuation of multiple villages.
Rains also pounded parts of eastern India, with Odisha -- already reeling under floods in the Mahanadi river system with around 4 lakh people marooned in 500 villages. Odisha braced for more damage with parts in its north receiving rains since Friday night.
In the neighbouring Jharkhand, a woman died when a mud wall of her house caved in on her in West Singhbhum district on Saturday morning as the deep depression that crossed the Odisha coast on the previous evening brought incessant rainfall in several areas, an official said. Normal life was thrown out of gear with rain disrupting power supply in many areas for long hours and causing traffic jams in major cities.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday informed that a deep depression over northwest Chhattisgarh, adjoining Madhya Pradesh and southeast Uttar Pradesh has weakened into a depression. The IMD said that the depression will continue to move west-northwestwards across north Madhya Pradesh and weaken into a well-marked low-pressure area during the next 24 hours.