Rescuers today pulled out more bodies trapped under the debris of the town devastated by cloudburst in which the toll has gone up to 130 even as relief teams tried to access far-flung villages in this high-altitude terrain to search for 600 others missing.
Six Indian Air Force aircraft carrying relief material, rescue workers and doctors landed in Leh on Saturday to provide succour to the people of the region affected by cloudburst and flash floods.
Two IL-76 and four An-32 aircraft from Chandigarh landed at the Leh Airport on Saturday afternoon with 125 rescue and relief personnel of National Disaster Response Force, medicines, generators, tents and emergency rescue kits, a defence spokesman said.
Two teams from Health and Family Welfare Ministry comprising specialist doctors and surgeons from Delhi also reached the flood ravaged town of Jammu and Kashmir. They have brought five tons of medicines with them.
He said the armed forces have launched massive rescue and relief operations for the victims of the devastating cloudburst.
“We have recovered 130 bodies so far and at least 370 are injured. The number of missing is yet to be ascertained,” State Police Chief Kuldeep Khoda said, adding the toll may go up. Sources fear that the death toll could cross over 500 as several remote villages were yet to be accessed by rescue teams.
A small village before Choglumsur, which bore the brunt of the incessant rains, was completely wiped out as rescue workers were looking for survivors in the mud slush and debris.
Over 200 people were still reported to be missing from Choglumsar, 13 kms from Leh.
A contractor told senior state administration officials that 150 labourers employed by him were missing from Shyong village where he had lodged them. The colony was set up along Indus river and the officials feared that many huts would have been washed away in the flash floods.
The Army has been asked to give an account of local and outstation labourers.
Authorities said that the Army had suffered losses in Turtuk area. Some of the villages along the Chang La pass, world’s second highest motorable road, were also believed to have been washed away in the torrential rains.
