RESCUE operations were underway on Thursday to trace 20 people missing after a cloudburst hit Honzar village in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir with authorities pressing more teams into action. Seven persons were found dead and 17 others were rescued in an injured condition after the remote village was struck by the cloudburst in the early hours of Wednesday, damaging 21 houses, cow sheds, a ration depot, a bridge and a mosque. The officials said the joint rescue operation by police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) is going on in full swing to locate the missing people, including nine women.

 

Director General of Police-cum-Commandant General Home Guard, Civil Defence and SDRF, V K Singh said a team comprising SDRF and NDRF personnel left Jammu at 5:45 AM by road for Kishtwar, while another joint team is leaving Srinagar shortly to join the rescue operation. Two more teams comprising SDRF and NDRF personnel are at the Jammu and Srinagar airports waiting for the weather to improve to get airlifted, he said. He said three teams of the SDRF have already joined the rescue effort and efforts are on to locate the missing persons.