Himachal Rains: NDRF Teams Engaged In Rescue Operations, Says Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are engaged in relief and rescue operations in rain-hit Himachal Pradesh and termed the loss of lives due to the deluge as ''extremely distressing''.

At least 29 people were killed in Himachal Pradesh, nine of them buried under the rubble of a temple and after another landslip in Shimla, as rains wreaked havoc in the state, triggering landslides that blocked key roads and brought down houses, officials said on Monday.

Up to 15 more people are feared trapped under the debris of the Shiv temple in Shimla's Summer Hill area. The shrine was crowded with devotees, offering prayers on an important day of the Sawan period. This was one of the two landslides reported from the state capital which is still witnessing intense rain.

''The loss of lives due to heavy rains and landslides at various places in Himachal Pradesh is extremely distressing. NDRF teams are engaged in relief and rescue operations along with the local administration. ''I express my deepest condolences to the bereaved families. May God give them the strength to bear this sorrow. I wish for the speedy recovery of the injured,'' he said on X (formerly Twitter).

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said nine bodies have been pulled out of the debris from a Shiv temple in the Summer Hill area that collapsed and the other site in the Fagli area where several houses were buried under mud and slush.

All schools and colleges in the state were closed on Monday. According to the state emergency operation centre, 752 roads were closed in the state because of the calamity.

The weather office predicted extremely heavy rains in nine out of 12 districts of the state, barring Kullu, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti on Monday and issued a yellow warning for Tuesday.

In Solan district's Jadon village, seven members of a family were killed in a cloudburst on Sunday night.