• Tue. Apr 16th, 2024

Landslide hits bus in India, kills 10

A massive landslide has struck a bus and several other vehicles travelling on a highway in the mountains of northern India, killing ten people and trapping dozens of others.

TV footages showed boulders and rocks rolling down the hillside before crashing into vehicles on the highway in Himachal Pradesh state.

Fourteen people were rescued, said Vivek Kumar Pandey, a spokesman for a paramilitary force involved in the search.

A bus, a truck and two cars were smashed in the landslide in Kinnaur district, police said. The number of passengers in the bus was unknown.

Eight bodies were found in a sports utility vehicle, police said.

Police also found the bodies of a driver and another person in the truck, which rolled down to a riverbank.

Those rescued have been taken to hospitals, though with minor injuries, a district official  said.

More than 100 rescuers, including police and paramilitary personnel, were deployed to clear the rubble using four earth removers.

Over the past few weeks, heavy rain has been causing several landslides in Himachal Pradesh state, which is 600 kilometres north of New Delhi.

According to ABC, disasters caused by landslides and flooding are common in India during the June-September monsoon season.

In August, about 150 people were killed by landslides and flooding triggered by monsoon rains in the country’s western Maharashtra state.