At least six people have died after flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains in a remote region of northeast India, local officials told AFP on Friday.
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Five people are also missing in this state, Sikkim, located in the foothills of the Himalayas, bordering China and popular with Indian tourists.
“The water level of the Teesta river rose sharply beyond the danger threshold on Thursday morning, causing serious damage to the roads and disrupting traffic,” senior official Gopinath Raha told AFP. of the state government.
Areas of northern Sikkim have been “cut off from the rest of the country,” Sonam Dichu, police officer in Mangan district, told AFP.
“Many houses were swept away,” he added.
The state disaster management agency said disaster relief operations were underway but slowed by damage to the mobile phone network.
The Sikkim government is working “to provide all possible support to the affected victims and families”, maintained the state’s chief minister, Prem Singh Tamang.
Last year, flash floods along the same river, caused by the bursting of a glacial lake, caused extensive damage to roads and bridges in Sikkim.
