SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Several people are feared dead in flash floods caused by torrential rains in a remote, mountainous village in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Thursday.
India’s deputy minister for science and technology, Jitendra Singh, said the floods were triggered by a cloudburst in Jammu and Kashmir’s Chositi area and “could result in substantial casualty.”
Rescue teams were on the way to the disaster area, Singh said.
Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s top administrator in Kashmir, offered condolences for the loss of lives in the disaster and said he had directed personnel from India’s military, paramilitary and police and disaster management officials to strengthen rescue and relief operations.
Officials have not provided the number of people believed dead or missing.
Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions, which are prone to flash floods and landslides. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions.
Experts say cloudbursts have increased in recent years partly due to climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions.
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