Death toll in Vaishno Devi landslide rises to 32

Jammu: The death toll in the Vaishno Devi landslide has gone up to 32 with rescuers pulling out more bodies from under the debris, officials said on Wednesday, a day after disaster struck the route to the hilltop shrine in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district.

At least 20 people were injured in the landslide triggered by heavy, relentless rain and are undergoing treatment in different hospitals, officials said.

With fears that more people could be trapped, rescue teams are continuing to dig through the mounds of rubble to look for survivors. While 30 bodies were recovered from the debris, two of those injured died in hospital.

The pilgrimage to the shrine was suspended when the mountainside literally gave way and stones, boulders and rocks came hurtling down around 3 pm on Tuesday, catching people unawares.

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The landslide struck near the Inderprastha Bhojnalaya at Adhkwari, about halfway along the winding 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine.

There are two routes up to the shrine — while the yatra had been suspended on the Himkoti trek route since morning on Tuesday, it was going on on the old route till afternoon when authorities decided to suspend it as a precautionary measure.

Unrelenting, torrential rain for days together has created havoc in Jammu region.

On August 14, a cloudburst triggered flash floods in Chisoti, the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata shrine, in Kishtwar district, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. At least 65 people, mostly pilgrims, were killed, more than 100 were injured, and 32 are still missing.

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