Incessant rains and landslides killed 66 people in Himachal pradesh and Uttarakhand as operations continued to rescue the injured and pull out bodies from debris due to house collapses in several places.
Most of the deaths occurred in Himachal Pradesh, where 60 people have died since the heavy rains began on August 13, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said.
The weather office has predicted isolated but heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh in the next two days and over Uttarakhand in the next four days.
A total of 19 bodies have been recovered since Monday, 12 at the Shiva temple site in Summer Hill, five at Fagli and two in Krishnanagar, he said, adding more than 10 people are still feared trapped at the Shiva temple, which collapsed on Monday.
All the schools and colleges in the state would remain due to inclement weather, an order issued by the education department said.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Army along with police and SDRF resumed rescue operations at Summer Hill around 6 am, Deputy Commissioner of Shimla Aditya Negi told news agency PTI.
The rescue operations were suspended on Monday night following heavy rainfall.
The weather office issued an orange alert on Tuesday (August 15), while a yellow alert was sounded for the next four days till August 19.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh University suspended teaching activities till August 19 in view of the torrential rains. The university library will also remain closed till August 20.
However, teaching and non-teaching staff would attend the university as usual, a notification said.
