At least 150 people are feared dead after a Himalayan glacier erupted, causing a massive flood of water and debris to spill into two dams, country officials said Sunday.
Rescue workers recovered two bodies as they fought to save the lives of workers at the dam sites in the Chamoli district, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said on Twitter.
“My prayers are with every missing worker,” he wrote, adding that their main focus is on finding people who may be trapped in underground tunnels. He did not elaborate on where the tunnels could be.
A video shared by Uttarakhand police and Indo-Tibetan border police showed a man being pulled alive from one of the tunnels. It was not immediately clear whether he was one of the workers or a local resident.
Rawat said 600 staff members of the Indian Army, border police and engineering team were ready to deal with the aftermath.
It is feared that between 100 and 150 people were killed, Om Prakash, general secretary of Uttarakhand, was quoted as saying by the Times of India newspaper.
Uttarakhand police chief Ashok Kumar was working on a news conference on more than 50 people at one of the dams, the Rishiganga hydroelectric project said. Some people are saved.
Authorities have evacuated other dams to curb water flowing from the flooded Alakananda River. Both Uttarakhand police and Rawat tweeted that people with houses along the river were being evacuated.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the nation prays for the safety of all in the region, while President Ram Nath Kovind also used the social media platform to say that he “deeply concerned“over the glacier bursts.
The video obtained by Reuters shows water flowing to one of the dams, washing away parts of it. NBC News could not independently verify this. Social media videos, which NBC is also trying to verify, showed floodwaters and debris flowing through the area and the aftermath of the flood.
Sanjay Singh Rana, who lives in the upper reaches of Raini town, told Reuters he saw a wall of dust, rock and water as an avalanche roared in a river valley.
“It came very quickly, and there was no time to warn anyone,” he said. “We have no idea how many people are missing.”
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Uttarakhand in the Himalayas is prone to floods and showers. In June 2013, record rains caused devastating floods that claimed nearly 6,000 lives.
That disaster was called the “Himalayan tsunami” by the media because of the water currents released in the mountainous area, which caused mud and rocks to collapse, houses buried, buildings, roads and bridges swept away.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Janhvi Bhojwani and Matteo Moschella contributed.