Rescuers hope for survivors after floods kill 132 in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India, Aug 7, AFP Rescuers struggled to find survivors Saturday after devastating floods caused by freak rains killed at least 132 people in a remote part of Indian Kashmir popular for adventure sports.

Scores remained missing as heavy rainfall Saturday briefly disrupted rescue efforts and raised fears of more flooding, with several villages in the stark Himalayan border region still cut off.

“The death toll has gone up to 132 and scores are still missing,” a senior police official said, asking not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

At least 400 people were reported injured in the floods, which struck without warning Friday in the region which shares a sensitive border with China and has a large Indian military presence.Thousands more were left homeless in the disaster, which came as India’s neighbour Pakistan was swamped by its worst floods in 80 years.Shops in a newly built market in Leh, the main town in the majority Buddhist Ladakh area, were transformed into temporary mortuaries where rescuers laid out bodies.“Unclaimed bodies are piling and it is becoming a major problem to preserve them,” a police officer said.

“Those which are claimed are immediately cremated or buried.” Among those killed in the flash floods and mudslides which hit early Friday, flattening buildings as people slept, were labourers from various Indian states.“Our immediate priority is to look for survivors,” said state tourism minister Nawang Rigzin Jora, who was directing rescue efforts in Leh.

Rescuers waded through knee-deep mud to reach victims trapped in collapsed buildings.A powerful six-foot (two-metre) wave of water, mud and sand left the area looking “like it was bombed,” R.S. Raina, who works for state broadcaster Doordarshan in Leh, told AFP.

“I have never seen such devastation,” Raina said.

The mountainous area in the southeastern part of Muslim-majority Kashmir is a favourite destination for foreign adventure tourists interested in Himalayan trekking and river rafting.

Farooq Shah, the region’s director of tourism, said only one foreign tourist was known to have been injured and was out of danger. But he said the situation would become clearer in a day or two as some tourists had travelled to remote villages now cut off by the devastation.