Himachal rain fury: Shimla landslide toll rises to 17, three still missing

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Himachal Pradesh on August 14, security and disaster relief forces continued their search operation for the seventh consecutive day. The toll in Monday's temple collapse incident increased to 17 with rescue teams recovering one more body on Sunday. «Today is the 7th day of the search and rescue operation at Summer Hill area.

So far, we have recovered 17 bodies, and we are searching for other three victims. Teams of SDRF, NDRF and Indian Army are present at the spot,» Roop Sharan, an inspector with NDRF said. «We are putting in our best efforts & hoping to retrieve the other victims,» he added.Virender Thakur, a local counsellor from the Summer Hill ward of Shimla Municipal Corporation said that rescue teams deployed at the site are carrying out the search operations.

«The search operations seem difficult for the teams out at the site, the machines brought over here for the rescue efforts are unable to reach down the site, so all the rescue work is being conducted manually by the rescue teams,» Thakur pointed out. In the unfortunate incident, the Summer Hill area's ancient Shivabari temple collapsed due to a landslide on 14 August. Several people died and others were trapped under the debris, as 20-21 people of being reported missing after the incident.