Rudraprayag: Two more bodies of landslide victims who went missing after a landslide in Gaurikund here were recovered on Thursday, a week after the incident, officials said. The landslide occurred on the intervening night of August 3 and 4, washing away three shops located close to a rain-fed waterfall in Gaurikund and around 50 metres above the Mandakini river, which was in spate.
As many as 23 people, 17 of them originally from Nepal, had gone missing in the incident. Three bodies were recovered hours after the disaster struck. On Thursday, the rescue teams recovered two bodies from the area where the landslide had occurred, Rudraprayag Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said.
One of the bodies was identified as that of Veer Bahadur, while the other one is yet to be identified, Rajwar said. Thursday's recovery took the death toll in the tragedy to 5 while 18 people are still missing, the DMO said. Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Yatra Management Force, police and fire brigade searched have been engaged in the search operation on the spot and in nearby areas since the early hours of August 4, he added. (PTI)