At least 46 people died and more than 200 others are reported missing after sudden and torrential rains in Indian Kashmir, officials said on Thursday, the second such disaster in the Himalayas in just over a week.
The incident happened in the Chasoti town of Kishtwar district, a stopping point on a popular pilgrimage route. This comes a little over a week after a major flood and mudslide engulfed an entire village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
The flood took in front of a community kitchen and a security post set up in the village, a stop along the pilgrimage route to the Machail Mata temple, said one of the officials, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the incident.
"A large number of pilgrims had gathered for lunch and were flooded," the official said.
The Machail yatra is a popular pilgrimage to the high Himalayan shrine of Machail Mata, one of the manifestations of Goddess Durga, and pilgrims travel to the temple from Chasoti, where the road for vehicles ends.