130 people killed in flash floods in Leh, 600 missing

Leh, Aug 7 (PTI) With the recovery of more bodies, the
toll in the cloudburst here Saturday climbed to 130 even as
600 more are feared washed away in the calamity that was
followed by torrential rains and flash floods devastating this
Himalayan town in Ladakh region in India's northernmost state
Jammu & Kasmir.
Sources fear that the death toll could cross over 500
as several far flung villages were yet to be accessed by
rescue teams in this high-altitude terrain.
"We have recovered 130 bodies so far and at least 370
are injured. The number of missing is yet to be ascertained,"
State Police Chief Kuldeep Khoda said, adding the toll may go
up.
A small village before Choglumsur, which bore the brunt
of the incessant rains, was completely wiped out as rescue
workers were looking for survivors in the mud slush and
debris.
Over 200 people were still reported to be missing from
the worst-hit village Choglumsar, 13 kms from here.
A contractor told senior state administration
officials that 150 labourers employed by him were missing from
Shyong village where he had lodged them. The colony was set up
along Indus river and the officials feared that many huts
would have been washed away in the flash floods.
The Army has been asked to give an account of local
and outstation labourers.
Authorities said that the Army had suffered losses in
Turtuk area. Some of the villages along the Chang La pass,
world's second highest motorable road, were also believed to
have been washed away in the torrential rains.
Union Minister Farooq Abdullah reached the area
Saturday morning from Kashmir. Later two of his cabinet
colleagues -- Ghulam Nabi Azad and Prithviraj Chavan -- also
reached here after making an earlier unsuccessful attempt to
land.
State Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had Friday visited
the affected areas and made an on-the-spot assessment of the
situation.
Army spokesman Colonel J S Brar told PTI that rescue
operations which had slowed down due to heavy rains have
picked up again.
"Two commercial planes have landed...A relief plane is
about to reach," he said.
Police, Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) and
civil administration are collectively involved in the rescue
operation.
"Police and ITBP have established camps in the
affected area. Civil administration is helping to its
maximum," Brar said.
"Among the injured, 300 have been treated...The other
injured are treated in army hospital. The 31 Army jawans
missing haven't still been located. We found a body," he said.
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