11 school kids rescued by army in Ladakh

JAMMU - Battling adverse weather conditions, Indian Army troops rescued 11 school children whose bus was trapped in a landslide in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region, the army said Sunday. Helicopters evacuated eight victims to military hospitals for life-saving surgeries.

Following the landslide, army troops immediately swung into action to extricate the 11 students of Army Goodwill School, Takshi, close to the Line of Control (LoC), near Turtuk in Nubra Valley of Leh district, a press release of the army’s northern command in Udhampur said.

Three Army helicopters were launched despite bad weather conditions to evacuate the eight seriously injured children to the military hospital at Hunder in the Nubra valley.

“The army doctors stabilised and evacuated three of these children with critical head injuries by helicopter to Leh as the CT scan facilities were not available in Hunder hospital,” the release said.

An army surgeon performed a life-saving emergency surgery on Faizullah, 6, who had sustained serious head injuries and a skull fracture and was in no condition to be air evacuated.

Surgery was also performed on Shamim, 10, who had blunt trauma chest and multiple rib fractures and lung contusion which could have caused respiratory failure and shock leading to death, the release said adding that both surgeries were performed without the support of advanced diagnostic instruments.

“These children are now stable and under medical supervision of the army doctors,” the release said.

Three children were evacuated to military hospital at Leh by an Air Force helicopter. Two of these children were referred to an army hospital in Delhi.

All the injured children are stable, the release said adding that the army will provide full medical assistance to them.