Six people buried in Himachal landslide

SHIMLA - Six people, including a 17-year-old girl, were killed and 14 critically injured when boulders fell on their hutments in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district Sunday, police said.

“Six people died on the spot and 14 were critically injured when boulders rolled down on around 20 temporary hutments near Wangtoo at 8 a.m. today (Sunday),” Superintendent of Police Yashbir Singh Pathania told IANS.

He said around 45 people, mostly labourers employed by a contractor of Jaypee Karacham Hydropower, were staying in the hutments when the incident occurred.

“Twenty people managed to run to safety when the boulders started rolling down from the hills,” he said.

He said five of the dead were natives of Nepal.

The injured have been admitted to a hospital run by the Jaypee group near the accident spot, some 150 km from state capital Shimla.

Local legislator Tejwant Singh Negi and government officials reached the spot to provide relief to the next of kin of the dead and injured people.

However, environmentalist R.S. Negi, who is based in Kinnaur, said the strata of the area had become loose due to heavy blasting at the Jaypee Karacham Hydropower project in the area.

The Jaypee group is setting up a 1,000 MW project in the area.