Sikkim flood: 62 missing people found alive, death toll rises to 33

The toll in the flash flood in Sikkim rose to 32 as four more bodies were found on Saturday, while 62 people who were reported missing for the past three days were found alive, a government agency said here.

The number of missing people thus came down to 81, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority (SSDMA) said in its latest bulletin on Saturday evening.

An inter-ministerial central team will visit the flood-hit state from Sunday to assess the damage due to the natural calamity, Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra said here.

The flash flood triggered by a cloudburst in the early hours of Wednesday affected 41,870 people in four districts of the Himalayan state, with Mangan bearing the brunt of the calamity as a population of around 30,300 were hit by the disaster, it said.

The other three affected districts are Gangtok, Pakyang and Namchi.

Of the 30 deaths - four were in Mangan, six in Gangtok district, 19 in Pakyong and one in Namchi.

The report said that the 19 deceased people in Pakyong included nine army men. Twenty-three soldiers had gone missing on October 3 and one of them was rescued earlier.

So far, 2,563 people have been rescued from different areas and 6,875 people have taken shelter in 30 relief camps set up across the state, most of which have been cut off from the rest of the country.

The deluge also damaged more than 1,320 houses and washed away 13 bridges in the four districts of the picturesque Himalayan state, said the report.

More than 3,000 tourists stranded in Lachen and Lachung in Mangan district of Sikkim after the flash flood hit the area, are safe, officials said on Saturday.

The Indian Air Force made multiple attempts to carry out rescue and relief operations by Mi-17 helicopters but was unable to fly from Bagdogra as well as Chaten due to inclement weather.

During the day, Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang visited the flood-hit areas of Mangan district and inspected the rescue and relief work being carried out by the army and the local administration.

Tamang earlier announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh for the families of the deceased and an immediate relief of Rs 2,000 each for all those taking shelter in the camps.

The search for the remaining missing soldiers is continuing both in Sikkim and the northern parts of West Bengal through which the Teesta flows, the chief minister said

Meanwhile, 25 students and three faculty members of Kolkata's Aliah University, who had gone to Sikkim for a field survey on October 3, safely reached Siliguri in West Bengal on Saturday.

They were stranded in a hotel in Gangtok.

In a statement, Interim Vice-Chancellor M Wahab praised Sikkim Police for the help which enabled the University to arrange three vehicles to transport the stranded students and faculty to Siliguri.