Forty-two construction workers are feared trapped in an avalanche at Mana village of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand near the India-China border, officials said on Friday.
The on-going rains for the past more than two days resulted in the breaking away of a thick mass of glacier from the hills of the Mana village area on Thursday at around 1.30 pm.
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Rescue teams of Indo Tibet Border Police(ITBP) and Border Road Organisation (BRO) were able to rescue 15 workers, while 42 others are still stuck under the broken glacier trap.
A team of the Uttarakhand State Disaster Response (SDRF) was also rushed to the avalanche site, while two high altitude teams were stationed on alert mode in Gauchar and Shastradhara Dehradun for transporting the trapped workers to the hospitals.
Chamoli District Administration and SDRF officials informed that although exact position of the workers trapped under avalanche will be known after taking stock of the situation at the site, but prima facie they were close to each other when the incident took place and a thick mass of snow and glacier came crashing down above them.
Officials informed that the avalanche was triggered by the ongoing rains and snowfall in high altitudes of the state for the last more than two days. Mass of the snow slid down on the road near Mana Village but no harm was done in the village. Trapped road construction workers had also raised their dwellings alongside the road.
“Rescue operation was in progress and all efforts were being made to save the trapped workers and clear the road blockade. More enforcement and rescue teams have been rushed to the site,” said Garhwal IG Rajeev Swaroop.
