Srinagar: Atleast eight including four children and four women have died while nine others were injured and several other residents went missing after flash floods triggered by cloudburst wreaked havoc in Thatri town of Doda and Kishtwar districts in Chenab valley on Thursday morning.
Officials said that six houses, two shops and a private school building were damaged in the natural calamity.
A police official said that the flash floods occured in the town along along the Batote-Kishtwar National Highway, leaving several people trapped. Eight people including five members of a family, a 12-year-old boy were, however, rescued.
Tehsildar Thatri, Parvez Ahmad told KNS that 6 persons died 3 women and 3 children and 11 were injured. He said that 8 persons of a single family were rescued in the rescue and relief operations which are ongoing.
The three women killed have been identified as 35-year-old Neeru Devi, Patna Devi, 45, and teenager Sareshta Devi.
The eight people rescued earlier are being treated at an emergency hospital at Thathri, Ahmad said.
A police officer said that the flash flood were triggered by cloudburst that hit Thathri town at 2.20 am, resulting in a massive increase in the water level of the ‘nullah’ flowing along the Jamai Masjid locality and it washed away several structures downstream.
“The district administration along with the police and Army has started rescue operation on a war footing,” the police official said.
The flashfloods inundated Batote-Doda-Kishtwar highway which was closed in the morning. The power supplied to the area remains suspended.
In Kishtwar, a woman identified as 50-year-old Kunji Devi and her five-year-old grandson were washed away in flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in Kishtwar’s Chichi area on Thursday.
The officials said the victims were grazing cattle in Chichi’s Hydal Mill meadow when the cloudburst struck the area. The body of the woman has been retrieved where the effort to get that of her grandson was on when reports last came in. (KNS)
