8 bodies found, 384 rescued in avalanche in Uttarakhand's Joshimath

Ajay Banerjee 

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

More than 12 hours after an avalanche hit the areas north of Joshimath in Uttarakhand, eight bodies have been recovered, an unspecified number persons are still missing while the Indian Army has, so far, rescued 384 people and six of them are critical.

A senior Army official said on Saturday that a rescue operation is continuing to locate other labourers who were in two separate camps. These are camps for labourers working on infrastructure, including one for road construction by the Border Roads Organisation.

Around 4 pm on Friday, an avalanche hit a location about 4 km ahead of Sumna. The location is on the Joshimath-Malari-Rimkhim axis. 

A BRO detachment and two labour camps exist nearby for road construction work. An Army camp is located 3 km from Sumna. The area had been experiencing heavy rain and snow since Monday and weather conditions remain the same.

Access to the road is cut off at 4 to 5 locations due to multiple landslides.

The border roads task force from Joshimath is working to clear landslides and it is expected to be done by this afternoon.