Landslide in India, at least 10 people killed, more than 100 trapped

Himachal Pradesh, The Gulf Observer: A large landslide struck a bus and several other vehicles traveling on a highway in the mountains of northern India, killing at least 10 people and trapping dozens of others, officials said, according to media reports.

Television images showed boulders and rocks rolling down the hillside before crashing into vehicles on the highway in Himachal Pradesh state.

Fourteen people were rescued, said Vivek Kumar Pandey, a spokesman for a paramilitary force involved in the search.

A bus, a truck and two cars were smashed in the landslide in Kinnaur district, police said. The number of passengers in the bus wasn’t immediately known.

Eight bodies were found in a sports utility vehicle, a police statement said.

Police said they found the bodies of a driver and another person in the truck, which rolled down to a riverbank.

Those rescued have been taken to hospitals but are not seriously injured, district administrator Abid Hussain Sadiq said.

More than 100 rescuers, including police and paramilitary personnel, were deployed to clear the rubble using four earth removers, police said in a statement. Ten ambulances waited to carry the injured to hospitals.

The rescue work was picking up with the weather improving in the area.