• Source:JND
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Kishtwar Cloudburst: The death toll in the deadly cloudburst in Chashoti of Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir has risen to 65 on Friday evening. The search for life in the rescue and relief operation continued on Friday evening despite inclement weather.

About 200 people have been rescued safely. More than 100 of them are undergoing treatment in hospitals in Jammu and Kishtwar. According to information received from relatives, about 100 people are still missing.

According to the officials, the bodies of 15 people buried under the rubble have been recovered from a dhaba. On the Machail Yatra route, the army and other forces built a temporary wooden bridge in place of the broken bridge and evacuated people one by one with the help of ropes. About five thousand people were evacuated safely.

It is expected that the entire area will be evacuated by morning. A cloudburst near the village of Chashoti on the Machail Yatra route to Mata Chandi temple on Thursday afternoon caused massive destruction. The temporary market, the langar (community kitchen) site for the pilgrimage, and a security post were destroyed due to the heavy water flow and debris from the mountains.

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Also, 16 houses and government buildings, three temples, four water mills, and a 30-meter-long bridge were damaged. There was a huge loss of life due to the huge crowd of devotees at the langar and the bridge.

According to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the death toll is more than 60. The injured are being brought to the Medical College Hospital in Jammu. So far, 30 bodies have been identified and handed over to the victim's families.

The chances of finding survivors are very low as days have passed.

Rescue operation on Friday

The relief and rescue operations resumed on Friday morning despite light showers. Along with the police, army, NDRF, SDRF personnel and local volunteers were engaged in searching for survivors in the debris.

Although rain stopped at around 7:00 in the morning, helping in speeding up the rescue operations, waterlogging and muddy surface posed a challenge.

Officials said more bodies were pulled out from the debris, but the chances of finding survivors diminished with each passing hour. Later, the rescue operation was also affected due to intermittent rain, as the helicopters could not fly.

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Jammu Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar and Inspector General of Police Bhamsen Tuti reached Chashoti to inspect the relief operations.

Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Sharma and Senior Superintendent of Police Naresh Singh are camping in the area. Sharma said that due to bad weather, helicopters could not fly, and the NDRF team reached the spot by road.