Four dead and several missing after Indian Himalayas avalanche

At least four people have died and several others are missing after an avalanche hit the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, authorities have said.

A rescue operation has been under way after the avalanche swept away road construction workers in the village of Mana, which shares a border with Tibet, on Friday.

Some 50 people who were buried under snow and debris were rescued, but four died from their injuries, the Indian army said.

Helicopters have been deployed in the search for five people who are still unaccounted for in the Himalayan mountain state, it added.

Uttarakhand state chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said rescue teams were “continuously engaged in relief efforts” following the avalanche, which hit a Border Roads Organisation camp.

He added that the government was committed to providing all possible assistance to those affected “in this hour of crisis”.

Footage posted on X on Friday by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police showed rescuers carrying people on stretchers and walking through several feet of snow – even as more snow continued to fall.

Gaurav Kunwar, a former village council member of Mana, told BBC News on Friday the area where the avalanche hit was a “migratory area” and “no-one lives there permanently”.

“Only labourers working on border roads stay there in the winter,” he added.

“There’s also some army presence there. We’ve heard that it has been raining in the area for two days. The road workers were in a camp when the avalanche hit.”

The India Meteorological Department warned on Friday of heavy rainfall and snow in the northern Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, as well as Jammu and Kashmir.

Orange alerts were also issued for snowfall in several districts of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.