Champawat (U’khand):
Two people died, five were injured and a child went missing on Friday after an SUV ferrying devotees to the Purnagiri Dham temple in this Uttarakhand district was swept away in a stream flooded by heavy rain.
The accident occurred in the Kirauda stream, which was in spate after heavy rain, District Magistrate Navneet Pande said from the spot.
The SUV was on its way to Purnagiri Dham temple, he added.
The dead were identified as Balwinder Kaur (14) and Sona Kaur (24), Pande said.
The injured included five-year-old Seema, sisters Pawandeep and Amandeep Kaur, Geeta Kathait and the driver Uvaish, he added.
Nine-year-old Mangal Singh is missing, he said.
State Disaster Response Force and police personnel are scouring the stream in search of him. The injured are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Tanapkpur.
Prahlad Singh (58), who was also travelling in the SUV, escaped unhurt.
The victims were residents of Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar district.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who represents Champawat in the assembly, expressed grief and directed the administration to provide all help to the victims.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)