59 tourists airlifted from north Sikkim as rescue operations resume

Fifty-nine tourists were brought back to Gangtok from the rain-ravaged north Sikkim on Thursday morning as the rescue operations resumed after the weather cleared, officials said.

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They were among the 109 tourists stranded in north Sikkim's Lachung for nearly a week.

Two MI-17V5 helicopters left for Chaten in north Sikkim from Pakyong airport near state capital Gangtok in the early morning after the weather cleared. While 39 tourists returned on one copter, 20 returned on another, officials said.

Among those rescued were two foreigners, they said.

Sikkim Nationalised Transport (SNT) has deployed buses to help these rescued tourists reach Siliguri in West Bengal.

An additional helicopter has been kept on standby at Pakyong airport for those who want to travel to Bagdogra near Siliguri by air.

The two helicopters flew to Chaten with personnel from the NDRF and Power Department, and engineers of Airtel, who would work in the region for restoring essential services, they said.

These 109 tourists were brought to Chaten for air evacuation, they added.

The tourists were accommodated in hotels and at the Chaten military camp, an officer said.

Helicopter sorties from the Pakyong airport were suspended on Wednesday due to bad weather in north Sikkim, delaying evacuations.

On Sunday, three Army personnel were killed and six soldiers went missing after landslides hit a military camp at Chaten. Several others were also injured.

The search operations for the six missing personnel have been hampered by bad weather conditions, unstable ground, and the challenging high-altitude terrain, an official said.

The ongoing relief operations in north Sikkim faced a critical setback after two key bridges over the Taran Chu river, situated between Munshithang and Chaten, were washed away by incessant rains, severing motorable access to Chaten from Lachen.

Three days ago, 1,678 tourists were rescued from Lachung and Chungthang, while 33 others, including two US nationals, were successfully airlifted before the sorties were suspended on Wednesday.