2,500 rescued from Badrinath: ITBP

Over 2,500 people were rescued Sunday from Badrinath in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) said.

All of them have been brought to Joshimath, said ITBP spokesman Deepak Kumar Pandey.

"Nearly 500 people are stranded still in Jungle Chatti (area and) we are carrying out aerial surveillance to rescue them," he said.

With Sunday's evacuation, the ITBP has rescued close to 22,000 people from the hills of Uttarakhand, where hundreds have died due to cloudburst and savage floods.

ITBP has also built a road from Badrinath to Hanuman Chatti to speed up the rescue operations.

"Earlier we had to bring people from Badrinath till Hanuman Chatti by foot, but now the road has been built we are bringing them by vehicles," Pandey said.

The government says 557 bodies have been found and some 20,000 people were still awaiting evacuation. Some officials and rescuers have said the fatalities may run into hundreds if not thousands.