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Death toll reaches 165 in Leh, 81 foreign tourists rescued | Rescue and relief efforts were on in full swing in flashfloods devastated Leh. At least 81 foreign tourists and six tour guides were rescued by the Air Force from Zanskar Valley on Monday while the death toll in the devastated Leh rose to 165 and 400 others remained missing. According to official sources, 150 of the dead have been
identified so far. The victims include a Romanian woman, 15 Nepalese nationals
and two Tibetans. Two French nationals and a Spaniard were yet to be traced, they
said. Sniffer dogs, which arrived here by an IAF transport aircraft, have been
pressed into service to look for survivors as relief efforts by security forces
gained momentum who were taking the help of heavy duty bulldozers and other machines
to clear the rubble. The Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), General Reserve
Engineer Force (GREF), police and civilian authorities were trying hard to remove
the piles of mud and slush which had buried villages in the worst-battered Choglusmar
belt here as well as to restore telephone links, the sources said. Jammu and Kashmir
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today visited Leh for the second time after the tragedy
struck and directed the Border Roads Organisation to clear the Manali-Leh highway
within next three days. He asked the officials engaged in relief work to ensure
that procedural formalities do not delay the operation. The IAF carried out a
record 62 sorties by Chetak helicopters in five and half hours to bring back 81
foreign campers and six tour guides from the 11,000-feet Zanskar Valley who were
stuck there since intervening night of August 5 and 6 after cloudburst and flash
floods wreaked havoc in Leh and surrounding areas. The foreigners rescued include
17 British and French nationals, nine people from the Netherlands , eight from
Czechoslovakia , seven Germans and four Israelis, said Indian Air Force officials.
200 people, including foreigners, are still stranded in various places in the
affected area, officials said. |
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