喜馬拉雅山區冰川斷裂後人們走過被衝毀的水庫大壩
圖 路透特約攝影記者
周日喜馬拉雅山區發生冰川斷裂，橫掃了印度北部一座小型水電站大壩，並造成約125人失蹤，洪水迫使下遊村莊居民疏散。一名目擊者表示，泥石流吞噬了位於北阿坎德邦群山深處的Rishiganga山谷。許多失蹤的人是Rishiganga水電站項目的工作人員，如今這個水電站已經完全被毀。
Some 125 people were missing in northern India after a Himalayan glacier broke and swept away a small hydroelectric dam on Sunday, with floods forcing the evacuation of villages downstream. Lauren Anthony reports.
Over a hundred people are missing and feared dead in northern India after a Himalayan glacier broke and swept away a dam on Sunday (February 7) causing immense flooding and forcing the evacuation of villages downstream.
Several bodies have already been recovered.
One witness said a wall of dust, rock and water hit as an avalanche roared down the Rishiganga valley, deep in the mountains of Uttarakhand.
Many of those missing are workers at the Rishiganga Hydroelectric Project - which was destroyed.
12 people who had been trapped in a tunnel had been rescued - and efforts were under way to save others caught in another, according to the the federal home ministry.
Local Puran Singh Rana saw the disaster.
"I was looking up and down and I could not see anything, but five minutes later, I witnessed something that looked like a scene from a Bollywood film. I have never seen anything like what I saw at the Rishiganga plant… about 50 to 100 people were running for their lives but could not be saved and they were engulfed by the river."
It was not immediately clear what had set off the avalanche outside of flood season - but Uttarakhand is prone to flash floods and landslides - and environmental groups have now called for a review of power projects in the ecologically sensitive mountains.