Four southern districts in Tamil Nadu are experiencing severe flooding after record-breaking rainfall, prompting Chief Minister MK Stalin to schedule a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi for immediate relief measures.
Eight people were killed and over 60 injured on Monday when a huge iron hoarding collapsed on a petrol pump in Ghatkopar area of Mumbai amid rain and gusty wind, while several others are feared trapped, officials said.
After 16 days of intense efforts by multiple agencies, all 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi have safely been evacuated on Tuesday evening.
'An even bigger salute to all the rescue workers and all the agencies that worked tirelessly to rescue our 41 workers trapped in the Utarkashi Silkyara tunnel. Jai Hind!''
There was a rush of people on the bridge, which was reopened for the public just four days ago following the renovation work, when it snapped around 6.30 pm, officials said.
At least 28 people died in rain-related incidents Sunday as heavy downpours lashed north and northwest India, causing landslides, traffic chaos and house collapses, as well as a dam breach which inundated several villages in Haryana.
'The situation is much better now. Last night, we had to work on two things. First, we had to revamp the platform of the machine... Parsons Company had done the ground penetration radar, through which we got to know that for the next 5 meters, there is no metallic obstruction. This means that our drilling should be smooth. When we were taking out the debris, we got two mangled pipes'
The game zone had fire safety equipment but action taken to control the fire was not sufficient, leading to the tragedy on Saturday, a senior police officer said on Sunday, a day after the tragedy.
At least eight persons were killed in a cloudburst near the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas on Friday evening, damaging 25 tents and three community kitchens, officials said.
Three experts from Western Coal Fields, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, camped at the Silkyara tunnel site from November 20.
Inching closer to their goal, rescuers have inserted wide pipes up to 45 metres through the rubble and will have to drill another around 12 metres to reach the 41 workers trapped inside the collapsed tunnel in Silkyara for 10 days, officials said Wednesday afternoon.
They said the incident occurred around 4 am when a 150-metre-long portion of the four-and-a-half-kilometer-long tunnel collapsed.
100 people are feared trapped as Irshalwadi village in Maharashtra's Raigad district was buried by a landslide early on Thursday morning.
Rescue workers pulled out all 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel in a multi-agency rescue operation that hovered between hope and despair for 16 days.
Another woman from Malda district said that her son was killed in the accident.
Police heads of various units across Gujarat have been instructed to be on "alert mode" and keep a close watch on anti-social elements as well as sensitive areas to avoid any untoward incident.
Efforts to retrieve the body would continue on Wednesday.
Himachal Pradesh has not witnessed such 'widespread heavy rains' in the past 50 years and the state has suffered a loss of about Rs 3,000 crore in this monsoon season so far, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Monday.
Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall near Jakhau Port in Gujarat on Thursday evening with a wind speed of 115-125 kmph gusting to 140 kmph as heavy rains lashed the coastal region, where several areas plunged into darkness due to power cuts and a large number of trees, electric poles and hoardings got uprooted.
Choppers belonging to the Western Air Command carried out over 50 sorties over the last 48 hours, rescuing over 780 citizens in the flood-affected areas of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh, Indian Air Force officials said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the building collapse site at Azan Molla Lane in the city's western periphery and assured local residents of stern action against illegal construction.
He further said that the "focus is on horizontal drilling" as rock formation has created challenges for vertical drilling.
Drilling at the collapsed Silkyara tunnel to rescue 41 men trapped inside for 12 days was halted again on Friday, officials said.
Here is the timeline of the disaster and the rescue efforts that followed.
The 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel for the last 11 days are likely to be rescued in the next few hours or by tomorrow, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said on Thursday evening.
Apart from 15 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 12 teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), personnel of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Indian Coast Guard and Border Security Force (BSF) are deployed for relief and rescue operations, officials said.
A senior Uttarakhand official at the site said drilling was complete.
The 41 workers, who were rescued from Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel in a multi-agency rescue operation, kept their spirits up while trapped inside by taking morning walks and practising yoga, a rescued worker told Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"On August 16 night, just as we reached an abandoned government hospital for rest after four days of non-stop work, the local police officer, villagers and NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) officials came to us, asking to save the life of a woman who had just given birth," he said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday held a review meeting as well as took stock of the ongoing rescue operation after the suspension bridge over Machchu river collapsed on Sunday.
Nearly 86 lakh people in the state's 32 districts have been affected by heavy rain and subsequent floods this year, bringing life to a screeching halt in many parts.
The resumption of drilling with the auger machine is likely to speed up the rescue efforts.
It has been a week since 41 labourers got trapped inside an under-construction tunnel at Silkyara in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district after parts of the structure collapsed following a landslide last Sunday.
A dozen people lost their lives in various rain-related incidents in and around Chennai while personnel on fishing boats and farm tractors were engaged in rescuing stranded people on Tuesday.
According to Chief Secretary P K Jena, some bodies were counted twice.
While Ekta Bhardwaj, 31, died Thursday night, the body of Sunita Srivastava was recovered on Friday, officials said, adding that operations by rescue personnel at the incident site are still on.
The Punjab government has ordered the closure of schools till July 13 while in Chandigarh schools are closed till Thursday.
A number of persons fainted after experiencing 'burning sensation' in their throat and chest. Many people who were asleep woke up in panic and scurried out of their homes and alerted neighbours and all of them soon reached the main roads unsure of what to do.
Here are the shocking images of the blaze.
Near the temple, a group of locals shouted 'Murdabad' slogans in protest when Chouhan was on way to console the victims' families.
