At least four people died of their injuries in India after an avalanche hit a remote border area, officials said on Saturday as rescuers deployed helicopters to search for the remaining five missing.
A total of 55 workers were buried under snow and dirt after avalanche hit a construction camp on Friday near Mana Village on the border with Tibet in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Indian army said 50 people were originally saved, but among them four succumbed to their injuries.
“Unfortunately, four wounded people have been confirmed as a deadly accident,” they said.
Five workers were still missing, the army said, adding that six choppers had been deployed in rescue efforts as “roads are blocked”.
Uttarakhand Minister of State Pushkar Singh Dhami said the rescue teams were “continuously engaged in relief efforts”.
“The government is fully obliged to provide all help to those affected in this crisis hour,” he said in a post on X.
Mana Village, who shares a border with Tibet, was deserted after residents moved to lower heights to escape the extreme weather, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
Avalanches and landslides are common in the top row of Himalayas, especially during the winter season.
Researchers have said that climate change made weather events more serious, while the increased development rate of the fragile Himalayas has also increased fear of the fall of deforestation and construction.
By 2021, nearly 100 people died in Uttarakhand after a huge glacierchunk fell into a river, triggering flash floods.
And devastating Monsun floods and landslides in 2013 killed 6,000 people and led to calls for a review of development projects in the state.
