LUCKNOW (INDIA) – Hundreds of military personnel were set up in the Indian Himalayas on Monday to help trace at least 125 people, who were not accounted for after a part of a glacier burst.
A small hydro electric project called Rishiganga was swept away by the violent outburst and damaged a bigger one further downstream.
A majority of the missing were people working on the two projects, which is one of the few the government has been working on building deep in the mountains of Uttarakhand state as part of a development push.
Rescue workers focused on a 2.5 km (1.5 miles) long tunnel where workers were believed to be trapped.
Vivek Pandey, a spokesman of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force, said 30-35 workers were believed to be inside the tunnel, and rescuers were giving it their best to open its mouth and get inside.
Another official said that there had been no voice contact yet with anyone in the tunnel.
On Sunday, 12 people were brought to safety from another tunnel.
Videos on social media showed water gushing through a small dam site, taking away construction equipment and bringing down small bridges.
Sangram Singh Rawat, a former village council member of Raini, the site closest to the glacier, told local media, “Everything was swept away, people, cattle and trees.”
Some 400 soldiers have been put on charge at the site in the remote mountains, state authorities said.
Satya Pradhan, the chief of the National Disaster Response Force, “We expect to carry on operations for the next 24 to 48 hours,.”