Himachal rains: People stranded in Lahaul will be airlifted to Stingri helipad, says Kullu ADM

The Assistant District Magistrate (ADM) of Kullu in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday said that people stranded in different parts of Lahaul will be airlifted to the Stingri helipad.

ADM Akshay Sood tweeted about the rescue and evacuations operations in the Kullu district even as about 50 IIT-Roorkee students on a trek   Lahaul valley were rescued by Indian Air Force helicopters, while more than 500 people remain stranded in other areas in Lahaul and Spiti district.

#HimachalPradesh: People from different parts of Lahaul will be airlifted to Stingri helipad. Our priority is immediate evacuation & bringing people to safety. We have also dispatched food items for the stranded tourists: Akshay Sood, ADM, #Kullu pic.twitter.com/JH0A1LEZMa

— ANI (@ANI) September 26, 2018

 

However, a team of six trekkers from New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh is missing in Kinnaur district, officials had said on Tuesday.

So far, heavy rains and snowfall in Lahaul and Spiti have claimed 10 lives, with four more deaths being reported on Tuesday in the northern state.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur told reporters the state had suffered losses totalling Rs 1,200 crore after three days of rains, beginning Saturday.

The incessant rains had triggered flash floods and landslides in the hill states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, killing at least 11 people on Monday. There were rains also in Punjab and Uttarakhand.

No fresh casualties were reported in the other states on Tuesday. But in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla district, two labourers died when a rock fell on their home.

Also, two people were killed when a car skidded off a slippery road in the state's Kinnaur district.

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There were only scattered showers in the state on Tuesday and the Met department predicted that the weather will hold on Wednesday as well.

But several roads, including portions of the Chandigarh-Manali route, remained blocked due to landslides and snowfall.

Apart from the rescue of the entire group of trekkers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, the IAF also rescued a German couple trapped in a blizzard while trekking from Ringdum to Dibling near Lahaul-Spiti.