Iran Press/ Asia: Heavy rains and landslides killed more than 40 people in the Northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh on Monday, according to India’s state-broadcaster DD.
Among the death toll are at least nine people who died when flooding caused a temple in the state capital Shimla, a popular tourist area, to collapse. The incident happened at around 8 a.m. local time, the state’s chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu told Indian news agency ANI during a visit to the temple site on Monday.
In Himachal Pradesh, 50 people were killed in the past 24 hours, up from an earlier official toll of 41. That included at least nine killed in the collapse of a Hindu temple in the state capital, Shimla.
"There is no previous record of such rains and more than 50 deaths in the state in a 24 hour period -- and this toll can go up further, because there are still about 20 people under the rubble," chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu told local media late Monday.
"The local administration is diligently working to clear the debris in order to rescue individuals who may still be trapped," Sukhu said in a statement earlier in the evening.
At least eight others have also been killed since Friday in neighbouring Uttarakhand state, officials said. 219
