LUCKNOW, India (AP) – Indian authorities launched a search operation on Sunday after breaking part of a mountain glacier, which left a massive flood of water and debris in two dams and damaged a number of houses. At least three people were killed and 140 were missing.
The flooding caused a section of the Nanda Devi Glacier to break down in the Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand on Sunday morning. A video shared by officials and taken from the side of a steep hill shows a wall of water breaking up in one of the dams and breaking it into pieces with little resistance before roaring further downstream.
The Rishiganga hydropower plant was destroyed while the Dhauliganga hydropower was damaged, said Vivek Pandey, a spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan border police.
According to Pandey, three bodies were found in the Dhauliganga project near a tunnel, where at least 16 workers remain trapped. Another 140 workers at the two plants are missing, he said.
Ravi Bejaria, a government spokesperson, said some houses were also damaged in the flood.
Officials said when the glacier broke, it sent water trapped behind it, as well as mud and other debris that had fallen off the mountain and into other bodies of water. An advice was issued asking people living on the banks of the Alaknanda River to move to safer places immediately.
Several teams of rescuers were rushed to the affected area, officials said.
The Himalayan region has a series of power projects on the Alknanda River and its tributaries.
In 2013, thousands of people died in Uttarakhand after heavy rains caused landslides and floods, washing away thousands of homes and roads and cutting off communications in many parts of the state.
___
This story has been corrected to show that the authorities launched their search on Sunday and not Saturday.