Five missing in Himachal cloudburst incident remain untraced

The five persons, including four tourists from Punjab and a local guide, missing for the last three days after flash flood at Loti Nalla near Chaba, 60 km from here, remained untraced even as a team of National Disaster Response Force from Bhatinda joined the search operations today.
The NDRF team reached Sunni in the afternoon and joined the search efforts after a reece of the area and visited the spot where the wreckages of vehicle which was swept away along with the five persons were located yesterday.
The 500 metre stretch of Loti Khud was filled with 20 to 30 ft of debris carried by flash flood and it was yet to ascertain whether the bodies are still under the wreckage or swept away into river Sutlej and further to Kol Dam reservoir.

Removing the debris was not easy and censors used for detecting the presence of human flesh are not effective perhaps because the bodies are buried deep under the debris, officials said.
The district administration would chalk out future strategy tomorrow in consultation with NDRF officers for intensifying the search operations to trace the bodies.
A vehicle with eight persons on board, parked at the Loti Khud was swept away by flash floods caused by a cloudburst in Chewri Panchayat on Tuesday. Three persons jumped to safety while gushing waters washed away the vehicle with the rest.
The missing persons had gone for river rafting and had taken shelter in the vehicle as heavy rains started and within minutes the vehicle was washed away in flash floods.