Many persons are feared killed after a flash flood caused by downpour swept away a Van at Rangri village near Manali at around 4.30pm on Tuesday. One more vehicle is feared buried in the flood. Work was on to recover the buried bodies.
Lalit Kumar, an eyewitness told TOI that Ashali Nullah was looking calm when he was behind the victim’s vehicle at 4.30 pm but suddenly it took form of a devastating flooded river coupled with debris and huge rocks. “I was lucky and survived but a green Van in front of me was struck by debris. I saw another vehicle crossing the highway which might be caught by the flood. They were more than three persons in the green van.
According to Manali SDM Balbir Thakur the number of casualty could only be confirmed after recovering the bodies. “Debris has buried a van. At this time it is not possible to say that how many vehicles or bodies have been buried. However, we have confirmed the presence of one damaged van while sources say there was one another vehicle plying the highway during tragic incident,” he said.
No dead body has been recovered so far. Police and fire personnel have rushed the spot to start search operation. There were possibilities that the bodies were drowned in the river Beas.
The flood has damaged the Delhi-Manali national highway No 21 too but the highway between Kullu and Manali was restored till late evening.
This is the fourth incident of flash flood in region in one month. Before this, cloudbursts on South portal of Rohtang tunnel had claimed 8 lives and cloudbursts near Mandi town and Naggar village of Kullu had blocked the highway for long time.
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