Himachal rain havoc: Kalka-Shimla railway track washed away, trains cancelled

The Kalka-Shima railway track between Jutogh and Summer Hill stations has been washed away due to heavy rains, according to the state government. The movement of trains between Kandaghat and Shimla has been cancelled as a result.

At least 29 people were killed in Himachal Pradesh as rains wreaked havoc in the state, triggering landslides that blocked key roads and brought down houses, officials said on Monday.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said nine bodies have been pulled out of the debris from a Shiv temple in the Summer Hill area that collapsed.

In Solan district's Jadon village, seven members of a family were killed in a cloudburst on Sunday night.

Two houses in the district were washed away following the cloudburst. While six people were rescued, seven others were killed, a police official said.

In Balera panchayat of the district, two children died as their makeshift house collapsed in a landslide and the body of one of them has been recovered. Another woman died in a landslide in Banal village of Ramsheher tehsil, said Deputy Commissioner of Solan Manmohan Sharma.

In Hamirpur, Deputy Commissioner Hemraj Bairwa said that three persons have died due to incessant rains in the district while two are missing. He appealed to all the residents of the district to take special precautions in view of the calamity.

One person was swept away by the flood waters while two others were rescued on Sunday night. In another incident, an elderly woman was buried alive while her son was rescued after their house collapsed due to rains, the official said.

In Rangas area of the district, a woman was killed in a landslide, he said.

Seven members of a family, including a two-year-old, were killed in a landslide late on Sunday night in the Seghli panchayat of Mandi district. Three persons were rescued, Deputy Commissioner Arindam Chaudhary said.

Heavy rains battered Himachal Pradesh since Sunday, triggering landslides that blocked several roads, including the key Shimla-Chandigarh road. In total 752 roads are blocked in the state as per the state emergency operation centre.

(With PTI inputs)