Debris from a landslide that hit a bus in India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh killed at least 15 people on Tuesday, local authorities said.
The bus was travelling on a hilly region near Bilaspur district when a landslide struck following days of torrential rain. There were 20 to 25 passengers on the bus. Nine men, four women and two children were among those killed, police said.
Three injured children were rescued and taken to hospital, according to a statement from the office of Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the state’s Chief Minister.
Rescue operations continued on Wednesday in an attempt to find missing passengers, who are feared dead, police said.
Intermittent rain has lashed the region since Monday, making the landslide-prone mountain slopes more unstable.
President Draopadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered their condolences following the deadly landslide.
Extreme rains this year have caused flooding and landslides across the South Asian region, which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal.
Flash floods swept away an entire village in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand in August, while at least 44 people were killed in neighbouring Nepal at the weekend in mudslides and flooding triggered by severe rainfall.
The weekend’s rain arrived at the end of Nepal’s monsoon season, which usually begins in June and ends by the middle of September. It also left parts of the capital, Kathmandu, flooded and caused the cancellation of all domestic flights on Saturday.
Experts said human-caused climate change is intensifying South Asia’s monsoons, which traditionally run from June to September and again from October to December. The rain, once predictable, now arrive in erratic bursts that drop huge amounts of water in short periods, followed by dry spells.
