GUWAHATI: Heavy rains continued in the Northeast, claiming lives in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura.
Five houses and a hotel collapsed following landslides in two areas of Lawngtlai town of the same-name district in Mizoram on Friday night. Official sources said one person was rescued alive from the debris of the hotel while efforts are on to rescue another.
“The person we rescued said another person was trapped. Given his statement, we understand that two persons were there in the hotel at the time of the incident,” a senior official of the district told TNIE.
Personnel of the State Disaster Response Force and the India Reserve Battalion along with locals were engaged in the rescue operation.
The Serchhip district was also hit by landslides on Friday night in which seven houses collapsed. Locals said a 55-year-old man lost his life. There is, however, no official confirmation of either the incidents or the death so far.
One person had died and another was injured in state capital Aizawl on Friday morning when a wall collapsed. Given the continuous rains, educational institutions across Mizoram have remained closed since Thursday.
Major landslides occurred in three localities of Guwahati in Assam, killing five persons including children, in the past 24 hours, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority said in a bulletin. Three of the deaths were reported from the Bonda area of the city.
The roads in Guwahati turned into rivers, disrupting vehicular traffic and throwing daily life out of gear. Educational institutions remained closed on Saturday.
Landslides also hit Sikkim; details are awaited.
The continuous downpour inundated vast areas of Manipur, including the Imphal Valley. The state’s major river, Imphal River, was in a spate, flowing above the danger level.
The rains caused flash floods and landslides in several districts of Arunachal Pradesh. The Upper Subansiri district was the worst-hit with the flash floods causing extensive damage, affecting hundreds of people. There was no report of any loss of lives from anywhere in the state so far.
Two persons had died in Meghalaya, and one each in Nagaland and Tripura on Friday. Multiple governments in the Northeast have advised people to avoid unnecessary travel and stay at home.