Chief minister Omar Abdullah said 60 people, including a majority pilgrims, were killed when flash floods swept through Machail Mata Yatra route through Chasoti village in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday afternoon. He stated more than 100 people are hurt.
Rescue teams dread that the number of causalities might increase since a number of individuals are still missing.
A majority of the victims were pilgrims who were on foot en route to Hindu shrine of Machail Mata, the police in Jammu said. According to him, the casualties will increase.
The tragedy struck Chasoti (also written Chisoti) at the last motorable point on the road leading to the 9.500 feet high shrine of the Machail Mata temple between 12 noon to 1 pm, the hour when hundreds of pilgrims arrived to take part in the annual yatra.
The final 8.5-km trek to the shrine begins from this village.
More than 160 people so far have been rescued and of these 38 have been reported to be serious and search and relief activities are underway in rugged mountains under heavy rains and debris. Body of one Central industrial security force (CISF) officer has been retrieved and three are missing. They had been moved to a short lived internal security duty in the yatra.
