8 killed in fresh heavy rains, landslides in Uttarakhand

Eight people were feared killed as heavy rains today lashed Uttarakhand triggering landslides and flash floods in several parts of the state.

The heavy rains also hampered relief works and also cleaning operation at Kedarnath shrine.

Four members of a family were killed in their sleep in a slum area near Rajpur in Dehradun following landslides. Vinod Thapa (30) his wife Sarita (25), daughter Pooja (7) and son Nishant (5) died in the incident, police said.

Four persons were swept away following a cloudburst at Kapkot area of Bageshwar district. A search operation has been launched in the area to look for the missing persons.  Arounb 125 mm of rains have been recorded in Kapkot division of Bageshwar district in the past 24 hours with most of the rivers like Saryu in the spate which are flowing just a few centimetres below the danger mark.

Nine houses were damaged in a landslide triggered by heavy rains in Sulat division of Almora district on Tuesday.

Two houses were also damaged in cloudbursts at Pipli Dhanadi and Atadi villages in Uttarkashi district where 90mm of rains have been received in the past 24 hours. Landslides have brought debris onto several roads across the state disrupting traffic along them.

Meanwhile, heavy rains again disrupted relief works in the floods affected areas in the state with helicopters failing to take off from different areas due to inclement weather. The heavy machinery required for clearing debris from Kedarnath also could not be airlifted due to which the cleaning operation around the battered shrine has failed to start so far.