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AMARNATH: Sixteen people were killed in Indian illegally occupied Kashmir, with rescuers searching for dozens more missing after flash floods swept away hundreds of tents near a popular Hindu pilgrimage site, officials said on Saturday.
Around 10,000 people were camped near the remote Amarnath temple, nestled in a Himalayan mountain cave when a sudden cloudburst triggered a deluge.
Frequent whizzing helicopter sorties were evacuating the dead and an unknown number of panicked and injured pilgrims from the Baltal base camp to the north of the shrine.
“We found 16 bodies so far and at least 40 are missing,” an official from the state disaster response agency told AFP.
“Security forces and all the rescue teams are looking for the missing and injured,” the official said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Vivek, a pilgrim who escaped the destructive downpour, said that some of his family and members of the group he travelled to the site with were still missing.
“We were a group of 150 and 30 of us are still stuck up there. Their phones are switched off.”
The annual pilgrimage sees hundreds of thousands of people trek up for days through rugged mountain passes to reach the shrine.
Visitors pay their respects to a large ice formation they believe is an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several senior government officials expressed their grief over the loss of lives.
