U’khand: Four from Haryana trapped in Pauri Garhwal resort collapse

DEHRADUN (Uttarakhand): Efforts are underway to rescue four members of a family from Haryana who got trapped under the debris of a resort, which collapsed in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district, police said on Monday, adding that a 10-year-old girl was safely pulled out from the rubble by rescue personnel.

Uttarakhand Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Kumar told ANI, "Due to heavy rains in Mohanchatti of Pauri district, a resort collapsed and five people were buried. A ten-year-old girl has been rescued alive from under the debris while four people are still buried. All these people are residents of Kurukshetra, Haryana. The search operation of police and SDRF is going on at the spot." Heavy rains have lashed Uttarakhand with many rivers flowing in spate while landslides triggered by heavy rain have blocked several roads, including national highways.

A building housing a coaching centre collapsed in Uttarakhand's Maldevta on Monday. Karan Singh Nagnyal, Inspector General, Garhwal Range said, "The collapsed building housed a coaching centre that helped students to prepare for Defence exams. There were 85 students enrolled in this coaching institute.

All of them were removed from the building the last evening after seeing the danger of rising water level.” Further, he said that on the Neelkanth Marg, there's the Mohanchatti area where a family from Haryana got buried in the debris. “We have information about 5 people comprising a husband and wife, their two sons and the wife's brother, getting buried under debris. There is also information that two people have drowned in Rishikesh, one of them is safe, but a search is on for the other person,” he said.

IG Nagnyal said that due to debris from landslides roads have been blocked in at least 10 to 15 places in the state. The Badrinath National Highway has been blocked at several places due to landslide debris. Chamoli District Magistrate, Himanshu Khurana told ANI that “Due to heavy debris falling from the mountain in Pipalkoti, many vehicles were buried under the debris and the roads have been closed.”