Workers rescued from the tunnel – VG

With loud applause, one of the workers was picked up from the tunnel where he had been locked up with his colleagues.

It was a small bright spot in the massive rescue work being carried out after large bodies of water flowed down the Dhauli Ganga River in India’s Chamoli district on Sunday. The flood was caused by the detachment of parts of a glacier in the Uttarakhand Mountains, reports India Today. The glacier is located in the Tapovan area of ​​the Himalayas.

The images show huge amounts of water flowing at breakneck speed downstream.

During a press conference on Sunday afternoon, the Prime Minister says that seven dead people have been recovered from the area.

Local authorities fear that many more human lives have been lost.

“The actual figures have not yet been confirmed, but we fear that between 100 and 150 people have died,” Om Prakash of the Uttarakhand authorities told Reuters.

According to Indian NDTV, several people from the area have been evacuated. Hundreds of police officers are said to have been dispatched to the area to begin rescue efforts.

Most of the missing are workers at the Tapovan hydroelectric plant. The plant is located next to a dam that burst when it was hit by water and masses. Several workers were trapped in a tunnel, but all had to be rescued.

Local police write on Twitter that a local hydroelectric power station has been damaged and that this means that the water level in the river is constantly rising.

People living near the Alaknanda River are asked to leave the area as soon as possible. The Dhauli Ganga empties into Alaknanda, one of the two main streams of the largest river in India, the Ganges.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi writes in a message on Twitter that the nation prays for the safety of everyone in the area. Reuters writes that several of the northern counties have received a warning.

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