sexta-feira, 6 de agosto de 2010

Cloudbursts ravage Leh: 113 dead, 500 missing

NEW DELHI: Amid the mounting death and debris of Choglamsar village -- located 5 km from Leh and a bustling settlement of Ladakhis and Tibetan refugees -- that has borne the major burnt in the massive mudslide sparked by Friday's cloudburst, comes stories of miraculous escapes bordering on divine intervention. 

According to sources in Leh that ToI was able to contact through defence sources, the wife of an Indo-Tibet Border Police officer was found alive after being swept away by the slithering mass of mud. Another officer's child was saved by a sofa in their quarters. She was found under the furniture that saved her from being smothered. 

Sources said the situation could have been worse but for the rumbling of the slithering mass of mud -- akin to cold lava -- and screams of people warning people in the defence settlements dotting the plains. Many in the defence establishment managed to escape nature's wrath since the slithering mass of mud did not gush like a stream of water, and the preceding rumbling gave some precious time to the people in the lower reaches to beat an hasty retreat. The Times of India