Kinnaur landslide updates: 13 killed, many others under the debris

At Least 13 people were killed, 13 rescued and several others feared trapped under debris, after a major landslide was reported in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur on Wednesday afternoon, Aug 11.

Reportedly the landslide hit a bus and other vehicles, trapping at least 40 people under the rubble. The bus was travelling from Kinnaur to Haridwar, on the national highway near Chaura in the Kinnaur district. According to officials from Kinnaur district administration, 3 small vehicles and one tipper (truck) have been recovered from the spot but the HRTC bus and one Bolero SUV are still untraceable.

Talking about the incident, Deputy Commissioner of Kinnaur, Abid Hussain Sadiq said ''several vehicles, including a Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus carrying over 40 passengers, are buried under the debris''.

Soon after the incident, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), CISF, The Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rushed to the spot to carry out the rescue operations that continued till late night of Wednesday.

The injured people were shifted to a community health centre (CHC) for treatment, the rescue operation started again on Thursday morning.

Notably, several people have been killed in landslides in Himachal Pradesh this monsoon season. Earlier on July 25th, a landslide hit a tourist vehicle near Batsari, on the Sangla-Chitkul road in Kinnaur district, killing nine persons.

On July 27, at least eight people died, two were injured and two went missing in flash floods triggered by a cloudburst over the Tozing Nullah in Udaipur of Lahaul-Spiti district.