A landslide struck a sector of the Chandigarh-Shimla highway, sweeping away vehicles near the Dhalli Tunnel. The tragedy was caught on camera but immediate details of any casualties were not available.
A massive landslide today hit a section of the Chandigarh-Shimla National Highway, sweeping away some vehicles and burying others.
The incident took place near Dhalli Tunnel, which is around seven kilometres away from Shimla. News agency ANI reported that the landslide buried several vehicles under debris and has impacted traffic movement in the area.
There were were no causalities in the incident, which was captured on video. The video, accessed by India Today, showed several cars being swept away by and thrown the landslide.
In the video, a long line of vehicles can be seen parked or standing still on a mountain road. Seconds into the video, a landslide is seen forming and then crashing down onto the road, taking along with it several cars that were either parked or were standing still on the highway.
Several cars are seen falling off the mountainside and it seemed that they were mostly empty. There were no causalities due the landslide, an official said.
Speaking to news agency ANI, the DSP of Shimla Police said that people who were stuck in houses below the site where the landslide took place had been rescued and that there were no casualties. “There are 2-3 empty cars still under debris from landslide,” he added.
Another police official told news agency IANS, “A portion of the cliff opposite the temple near Bhattakufer caved in. Boulders rolled down and smashed six-seven vehicles parked along the highway.
At the time of last updating this report, rescue operations were on and at least three people had been rescued from under the debris. Meanwhile, traffic on the national highway has been diverted via Sanjauli.
The Chandigarh-Shimla highway links the state capital with prominent tourist destinations like Kufri and Naldhera and apple belts of Jubbal, Narkanda and Kharapathar and the entire Kinnaur district.
Today’s incident comes around a fortnight after a massive mudslide in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district on August 13 swallowed a 150 metre stretch of road burying three homes, two buses and a bike and leaving 46 dead.
The incident occurred in the early hours on the Mandi-Pathankot highway near Kotropi village in Jogindernagar tehsil, 220 km from here, when two Himachal Road Transport Corporation buses had stopped at a kiosk on the highway for refreshments.
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