With the recovery of three more bodies on Thursday from a hydro project site in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district that was hit by flash floods a day ago, the death toll has risen to five, officials said.
Search operations have been intensified to find the six persons still missing since flash floods triggered by cloudbursts hit Kangra and Kullu districts on Wednesday.
Two bodies were recovered on Wednesday.
The deceased have been identified as Chain Singh, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, Aditya Thakur from Chamba, Sanjay from Nurpur, and Pardeep Verma and Chandan from Uttar Pradesh, Kangra SP Shalini Agnihotri said on Thursday.
Lovely from Chamba district, whom the search teams rescued from a forest near the project site, said there were 13 people in the camp, of which five ran towards the hills while the remaining were swept by the gushing waters.
"We saw the floods coming and screamed to alert the people below before running to safety," Daya Kishan, a labourer, said.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Commandant Baljinder Singh said they are trying to trace the people who are feared to have been swept away from the project site during the floods.
Three more people are yet to be traced at Rehla Bihal in Kullu district.
About 15-20 workers were feared swept away at the makeshift labour colony near the Indira Priyadarshini Hydroelectric project site following a surge in the water level at Manuni Khad in Khaniyara village on Wednesday evening.
While some of the missing persons have been rescued, the authorities did not clarify the exact number of people saved.
NDRF's Singh said that joint search teams of NDRF, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), police, and Home Guards are on the job, though the tough topography and bad weather have made the search operation difficult.
Another person who was last known to have fled to a nearby hill to save himself during the floods has been found, the officials said.
Some of the missing persons were from Nurpur and Chamba areas of Himachal Pradesh, while the others were from Uttar Pradesh, they said.
Expressing condolences to the bereaved families of the workers, BJP president J P Nadda said, "In this hour of crisis, every BJP worker is dedicated to providing all possible help to the citizens of Devbhoomi. I pray to God to give peace to the departed souls and provide strength to the bereaved families."
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Dharamshala Sudhir Sharma, who reached the spot on Thursday, said the project site was one km from his village.
He received a call on Wednesday that the water level had surged and 15-20 people had been swept away, Sharma said.
He claimed the building sheltered the labourers near a stream, and not shifting them to safer areas when the weather deteriorated pointed at negligence which should be probed.
Besides alleging lapses by the authorities in ensuring the safety of the workers, Sharma also raised serious concern about the negligence on the part of the contractor and the project officials.
He also claimed the actual damage to life and property was greater than what was being reported, and only the labour contractor can provide accurate information about the number of missing workers.
Meanwhile, officials said as of Wednesday night, around 250-275 workers were present at the site, all of whom have been provided temporary shelter at the Ambedkar Bhawan in Khaniyara.
The project work had been suspended due to rain, and the workers were resting in temporary shelters near the site when floodwaters from Manuni Khad and nearby drains diverted towards them, sweeping several away, the officials said.
Three people, including a 14-year-old, who were swept away in the deluge at Rehla Bihal in Kullu district, are still missing, and a search is going on to find them, they said.
Deputy commissioner Torul S Ravesh said the NDRF has joined the rescue operation in Kullu, as she cautioned tourists to avoid going to the low-lying areas and riverbeds.
Flash floods were also reported from Manali and Banjar in the district and reports of some tourists stranded in remote areas of Kullu district due to blocking of roads have also poured in.
Heavy rains have caused massive damage in Sainj, Gadsa and Hornagad areas that come under the Banjar assembly constituency in Kullu.
Banjar MLA Surinder Shauri, who visited the affected places, said the main road is blocked in Hornagad, while electricity and water supply have been disrupted in the village.
Heavy rains and strong winds brought down hoardings in some places, including the state capital, uprooted trees and disrupted normal life.
The rise in water levels of rivers and heavy rains led to flooding of low-lying areas in Ernakulam, Thrissur and Idukki districts, displacing hundreds of people who were shifted to relief camps.
Meanwhile, continuous rains in Wayanad's Mundakkai-Chooralmala region resulted in the Chooralmala River being in strong spate, with muddy water flowing forcefully and eroding the banks near the Bailey bridge.
Last year in July, deadly landslides in the region claimed over 200 lives and destroyed many homes.
In Madhya Pradesh, several areas received showers on Thursday and the momentum is likely to continue with the IMD predicting very heavy rainfall in five districts and heavy rains in 16 others in the next 24 hours.
Alirajpur, Tikamgarh, Neemuch, Sehore, Dhar, Harda and Barwani districts were lashed by heavy rain on Thursday.
Very heavy rainfall is likely in Alirajpur, Jhabua, Balaghat, Mandla and Dhar in the next 24 hours, an official of the IMD's Bhopal office told PTI.
A yellow alert of heavy rainfall has been issued for isolated places in Indore, Damoh, Jabalpur, Narsinghpur, Panna, Sagar, Seoni, Barwani, Dewas, Mandsaur, Narmadapuram, Raisen, Ratlam, Sehore, Ujjain and Vidisha, he added.
Rains led to waterlogging in some parts of Jabalpur as commuters were seen wading through submerged roads.
In Rajasthan, light to heavy rain with thunderstorms and lightning was recorded at many places in the eastern part of the state and some areas in the western part.
In the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 am Thursday, the highest rainfall recorded was 115 mm in Bhungra, Banswara. Danpur, Masuda, and Jhadol each received 80 mm of rain.
Delhi on Thursday recorded a minimum temperature of 28.6 degrees Celsius. The IMD has forecast a generally cloudy sky with moderate rain during the day.
In Jammu and Kashmir, three persons, including two children, died while four others were rescued as flash floods triggered by cloudbursts and heavy rains were reported from different areas of Rajouri, Poonch, Doda and Kathua districts on Thursday, officials said.
Shaqafat Ali (14) and his cousin, Safeena Kousar (11), drowned due to flash floods in a riverlet at their Sialsui Mou village in Kalakote sub-division of Rajouri, they said.
Saima (10), who was also trapped in the flash floods, was rescued by local volunteers and shifted to a hospital, the officials added.
The children were grazing their cattle when they were swept away by the flash floods due to a cloudburst, the officials said, adding that the bodies were retrieved and handed over to the relatives of the children for the last rites.
The body of Basharat Hussain (32), a resident of Dunadi village, was fished out by a rescue team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) from the Lopa stream in Doda, the officials said, adding that he drowned while bathing in the stream on June 23.
Baldev Raj (35) and Sushil Kumar (25) were rescued by the SDRF from a swollen Ujh river, near Jarmal village in Nagri block of Kathua, the officials said.
They said the men had gone fishing and got trapped due to a sudden rise in the water level following heavy rains in its catchment areas.
The officials said the SDRF also rescued a person from a stream in Poonch.
Flash floods due to cloudbursts were also reported from Qazi Mora in Poonch and different high-altitude areas of Doda, Udhampur and Ramban districts, but there was no report of any casualty.
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