RISHIKESH, India (AP) – Indian authorities launched a search operation Sunday after part of a mountain glacier broke, sending a massive flood of water and debris slamming into two dams and damaging a number of homes. At least nine people were killed and 140 were missing.
The flood was caused when a portion of Nanda Devi glacier broke off in the Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand on Sunday morning. A video shared by officials and taken from the side of steep hillside shows a wall of water surging into one of the dams and breaking it into pieces with little resistance before continuing to roar downstream.
The Rishiganga hydropower plant on the Alaknanda River was destroyed, while the Dhauliganga hydropower plant on the Dhauliganga River was damaged, said Vivek Pandey, a spokesman for paramilitary Indo Tibetan Border Police. Flowing from the Himalayan mountains, both rivers meet before merging with the Ganges River.
Pandey said all 12 workers trapped inside a tunnel at the Dhauliganga project were rescued and provided first aid. Earlier, he said 16 were people were trapped there.
Another 140 workers at the two plants were missing, Pandey said.