A devastating avalanche took several tourists by surprise in the upper stretches of Sikkim. The natural disaster took place on the afternoon of Tuesday.
As many as seven people reportedly perished in the incident. And dozens more were injured in it. The location of the incident is said to be on the Gangtok- Nathula La route. Which is a popular route for tourists visiting the state. When the incident took place in the afternoon, several tourists were present in the location.
Multiple videos and photographs went viral on social media. They all showed many tourists being swept off and buried in snow. While people were trying to dig into the snow to rescue those trapped in the snow.
The National Disaster Response Force released a statement regarding the incident on Wednesday. This statement mentioned that all the tourists and tourist vehicles were being accounted for. So the search and rescue operations were well called off. It also mentioned that the complete list of recovered tourists will be shared later.
The Border Roads Organisation had mentioned that the avalanche struck the 14th-mile region on the Jawaharlal Nehru Road. This road connects Nathu-La to the capital city of Gangtok. The disaster occurred at around 12:15 PM when a large number of people were present. An estimated number of 20-30 tourists were trapped in the snow along with 5-6 vehicles.
They also mentioned that a total of 14 people were rescued by about 3 PM. These people were shifted to the nearby Army medical facility. A statement from the Army mentioned that seven people were killed. While seven others were administered first aid and moved to Gangtok.
This also led to the closure of all tourist routes in the region till any further orders.
