Flash flood: 4 drown, 15 missing near Kedarnath

Four people died and 15 were missing after a flash flood in a rainfed waterfall swept away three shops near Daat Puliya close to Gaurikund on the way to Kedarnath, officials said on Friday.

The district administration had earlier said nine out of a total of 13 people were still missing after the recovery of four bodies but district disaster management officer Nandan Singh Rajwar later revised the figure of those missing to 15.

Rajwar said the latest figure includes a man, his wife and daughter from Nepal who ran a dhaba at the spot and three customers, also from Nepal, who had come to the eatery for dinner. The additional missing people include Bir Bahadur, his wife Sunita, their daughter Nisha and customers Dharmaraj and Sukhram Rawat.


Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reached the Disaster Control room at the secretariat here to take stock of the situation. He instructed officials to speed up the ongoing relief and rescue work on the spot. He said an alert should be issued at all the places where there is a threat of flood.