40 people have been confirmed dead after heavy rainfall in India caused a glacial lake to overflow and flood surrounding areas with ice-cold water.
Violent torrents stuck the remote state of Sikkim on Wednesday, Oct. 4, after the sudden bursting of a high-altitude glacial lake in neighbouring Nepal.
In one of the worst disasters in the region in 50 years, the floods washed away houses and bridges and forced thousands of people to leave their homes on Wednesday.
Damage to key infrastructure and continuous rainfall has cut off the capital city, Gangtok, and made rescue operations more difficult.
Fifteen bridges in the state have been washed away, including all bridges downstream of an NHPC hydropower station Teesta-V, according to the Indian government.
“We are evacuating [people] through helicopters provided by the army and the air force,” Vinay Bhushan Pathak, Sikkim state chief secretary, said on Friday, Oct. 6.
About 2,400 people have been rescued since Wednesday and 26 injured individuals were taken to hospitals.
Officials in the neighbouring downstream state of West Bengal told Reuters that emergency teams recovered another 22 bodies that had been washed away.
Rescue workers are still trying to locate almost 100 people, including 23 army personnel.
A statement from West Bengal cited by the Press Trust of India also said that the bodies of four army soldiers had been found. However, it was not immediately clear whether they were among the 23 missing soldiers.
One soldier who had been reported missing on Wednesday was later rescued by authorities, the army said in a statement.
Climate scientists warn that similar disasters will become an increasing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts.
