At least six persons died and eight injured persons were resuced after a boulder fell on the bus they were travelling in. The bus was carrying pilgrims from outside the state and locals returning from Badrinath when the mishap occurred at Lambagarh in Chamoli district on Tuesday morning. Initially after the mishap, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local police units attempted to rescue five persons trapped in the wreck of the bus with the help of JCBs and crane. However, due to inclement weather conditions and boulders consistently falling from the mountain, the rescue work became increasingly difficult. By late evening, the teams succeeded but till then the passengers were dead.
One of the deceased has been identified as Raju Kumar (20) while the identities of the others killed in the mishap had not been ascertained till the time of this report being filed. The injured passengers include the driver Darshan Singh, Sujan Singh (53), Shailendra Shukla (40), Prem Sagar (42), Jawahar Singh (60), Jitendra Das (40), Ravi Singh (27) and Suraj Mishra (21).
Chamoli Superintendent of Police (SP) Yashwant Singh Chauhan said, “The rescue mission had been ongoing since morning, but because of continuous land slide and heavy rainfall it became increasingly difficult. In the late afternoon a big boulder fell down the mountain because of which the bus was pushed further down. Teams were working to resuce the trapped passengers though the chances of their survival were feeble. The bus was divided in two parts because of the impact and weight of the boulder.”
He further added, “After the accident because the route is blocked, we took three injured to Lambagad and five towards Pandukeshwar from there they were referred to Joshimath.”
SP Commandant SDRF, Tripti Bhatt said, “The boulders kept falling down the mountainside because of which the rescue work was being disrupted.”