Rains also wash away roads and damage structures
At least 30 people have been killed and many injured after heavy rains triggered a massive landslide near the Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, officials said Wednesday.
Senior Superintendent of Police Paramvir Singh confirmed the casualties, saying that rescue and relief operations are underway.
“Security forces, disaster relief teams and local volunteers have been pressed into service to clear debris and search for survivors,” Singh said.
The heavy rainfall in the region has brought life to a standstill as schools, workplaces and other business establishments were closed after rain swept through streets, with authorities advising residents to stay indoors.
Since Monday night, the Jammu and Kashmir region has faced its heaviest rainfall in decades, damaging bridges, washing away roads and flooding large areas, forcing residents to relocate to safer zones.
“At least 3,500 people have been evacuated to safer places so far,” officials said.
Indian Railways cancelled 18 trains to and from Katra, Udhampur and Jammu railway stations Wednesday as relentless heavy rains wreaked havoc in the Jammu region.
Mobile and internet services are still down in the region as heavy rainfall is hampering restoration work, according to telecom service providers.
Officials said that network outages were reported across all service providers in the region after optical fiber in multiple places was damaged as a result of the severe weather, the Press Trust of India reported.
On Tuesday, four people were killed in a cloudburst that struck Doda district in Jammu province.
The latest deaths in the region came days after cloudbursts hit Kathua and Kishtwar districts, killing at least 70 people, while 25 people remain missing.
