Flood kills 34 in Indian Kashmir mountain village

(AFP): Powerful torrents driven by intense rain smashed into a Himalayan mountain village in Indian-administered Kashmir and killed at least 34 people on Thursday, a top local government official told AFP.

It is the second major deadly flooding disaster in India this month.

“The news is grim,” Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a statement, reporting a “cloudburst” of intense rain that had hit the Kishtwar district.

Crowds gathered at a Kishtwar hospital while people carried some of the injured on stretchers.

“We have found 34 dead bodies and rescued 35 injured people,” said Pankaj Kumar Sharma, district commissioner of Kishtwar.

“There are chances of more dead bodies being found,” he told AFP.

Sushil Kumar, a resident of nearby Atholi village, told AFP: “I saw at least 15 dead bodies brought to the local hospital.”

Rescue teams are likely to face difficulty reaching the area.

Roads had already been damaged by days of heavy storms. The area lies more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) by road from the region’s main city Srinagar.

“Every possible assistance will be provided to those in need,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

Floods on August 5 swept away the Himalayan town of Dharali in India’s Uttarakhand state and buried it in mud. The likely death toll from that disaster is more than 70 but has yet to be confirmed.

Floods and landslides are common during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency and severity.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said last year that increasingly intense floods and droughts are a “distress signal” of what is to come as climate change makes the planet’s water cycle ever more unpredictable.