Woman killed, 5 injured in Uttarakhand landslide

A woman from Maharashtra was killed and five others sustained injuries when the vehicle in which they were travelling was hit by a landslide on Kedarnath road on Wednesday, an official said.

The incident occurred near Sonprayag on the Rudraprayag-Gaurikund National Highway around 3 pm, Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said.

There were 11 people in the vehicle at the time of the accident and they were returning from Kedarnath, he said.

The vehicle was engaged in Sonprayag-Gaurikund shuttle service and was hit by huge boulders and debris that suddenly came down from a hillock near Munkatiya, he said.

The woman from Maharashtra's Ahmednagar was identified as 62-year-old Pushpa Mohan Bhonsle. She died on the spot, the official said.

On receiving information about the incident, police and State Disaster Response Force personnel reached the spot and started relief and rescue operations, Rajwar said.

Uttarakhand was lashed by rain on Wednesday leading to landslides at several places in the state.