Sixteen people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir and rescue workers were searching for dozens more missing after flash floods swept away hundreds of tents near a popular Hindu pilgrimage site, officials said on Saturday.
About 10,000 people were encamped near the remote Amarnath Temple, nestled in a mountain cave in the Himalayas, when a sudden downpour triggered a deluge.
Frequent whizzing helicopter missions evacuated the dead and an unknown number of panicked and injured pilgrims from Baltal Base Camp north of the shrine.
“We have found 16 bodies so far and at least 40 are missing,” an official with the state’s disaster management agency told AFP.
“Security forces and all rescue teams are searching for the missing and injured,” the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Vivek, a pilgrim who escaped the destructive downpour, said some of his family members and members of the group he traveled to the site with are still missing.
“We were a group of 150 and 30 of us are still stuck up there. Your phones are off.”
The annual pilgrimage sees hundreds of thousands of people trekking for days through rugged mountain passes to reach the shrine.
Visitors pay their respects to a large ice formation believed to be an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several senior government officials expressed their sadness at the loss of life.
“Condolences to the bereaved,” Modi tweeted late Friday.
– Bad weather –
The pilgrimage is taking place for the first time since 2019 after a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In normal times, it is one of the biggest religious events in Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region disputed between India and Pakistan that has long been the scene of an uprising against Indian rule.
This year, the pilgrimage is taking place alongside a huge security operation involving tens of thousands of soldiers and police officers.
But treacherous weather in the mountains has historically posed a greater threat than security issues in the troubled area.
Almost 250 people died in 1996 when they were suddenly caught in snowstorms that ravaged the area.
Heavy rains have battered South Asia this monsoon season, with scores dead after floods, landslides and lightning strikes in remote north-east India in June.
More than 100 others were killed in Bangladesh that same month when rivers swelled to record levels and flooded rural villages after some of the heaviest rains in a century.
Floods are a regular threat in India and Bangladesh, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency, ferocity and unpredictability.
#dead #flash #floods #Indian #pilgrimage #town #Kashmir
