At least 60 dead, dozens missing after cloudburst in occupied Kashmir

A flash flood caused by a cloudburst swept through a village in India-occupied Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, killing at least 60 people, officials said on Friday.

Dozens remain missing, among them Hindu pilgrims who had gathered for a shrine visit, when sudden torrents of water and mud, triggered by what Chief Minister Omar Abdullah described as a “cloudburst”, engulfed the area on Thursday.

A large makeshift kitchen serving more than 100 pilgrims was washed away in the deluge, according to media reports.

Subsequently, heavy machinery was deployed to clear the boulders, deep mud, and rubble carried down the mountainside by the floodwaters.

The Indian army’s White Knight Corps said its personnel were “braving harsh weather and rugged terrain” to evacuate the injured, while ropes, digging tools, and other emergency gear were rushed to the site.

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One survivor told the Press Trust of India that he had heard a “big blast” just before the wall of water struck. “We thought it was an earthquake,” he recalled, declining to disclose his identity.

AFP quoted a disaster management official, Mohammad Irshad, as saying that 60 deaths had been recorded so far, with around 80 people still missing.

“The search for the missing has intensified,” he said, adding that about 50 severely injured victims had been moved to hospitals.