Six Chinese nationals were washed away in flash floods in the Parechhu river and their bodies seen floating in the Sutlej near Sumdoh, 6 km from the international border in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh [Images], the army said on Monday.

The Chinese authorities had been informed about it, Maj Gen R S Gill of the Western Command, which is engaged in relief and rescue operations in flood-hit Kinnaur and Kullu districts, told reporters.

The bodies were likely to get entrapped in the tunnels of the Naptha Jhakri project and a warning had been sounded to all to inform army authorities if they see the bodies, Gill said.

• Sutlej recedes; flood threat wanes

"If the bodies are retrieved, the army and civil administration will embalm them and send them back to China," he said, adding at least three villages close to the international border had been submerged in the gushing waters.

"There is no civilian population ahead of Sumdoh. Only the Indian Tibetan Border Police personnel camp ahead of the spot," he said.