2023-08-14 09:58:33
NEW DELHI (AP) — Heavy monsoon rains triggered flooding and landslides in India’s Himalayan region, killing at least 22 people and injuring many others, authorities said Monday.
Nine people died Sunday night during a downpour in the Solan district of the mountainous Himachal Pradesh state, and nine other bodies were recovered from mud and rubble following two landslides in Shimla, the capital of the state, authorities told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Four others were killed by downpours and a landslide in the state’s Hamirpur district, they added.
State Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said rescuers in Shimla were working to clear the wreckage and help those still trapped.
Sudden downpours are common in the Himalayan regions, although experts have expressed alarm at the increase in extreme weather events in the area. Those localized torrential downpours drop more than 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) across a space of 10 square kilometers (3.8 square miles) in an hour. They can cause severe flooding and landslides affecting thousands of people in the hilly areas of India.
The water washed away houses and flooded roads in Solan, police told PTI. In Shimla, landslides toppled a Hindu temple and authorities said the death toll might rise as they worked to free people still trapped.
All schools and universities in the state had closed and more than 700 roads were cut off by flooding.
India’s meteorological department warned of moderate to heavy rain in several parts of the state on Monday. The agency had issued a red alert over the weekend for downpours in the neighboring state of Uttarakhand, where 60 people have died in torrential rains this season, according to PTI.
In July, record monsoon rains killed more than 100 people in a two-week period in parts of northern India, including Himachal Pradesh, which was hardest hit.
Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in the Himalayan region of northern India in the monsoon season between June and September. Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers in the region.
Floods last year washed away houses and killed nearly 200 people in Uttarakhand.
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