Detailed event map. European Union, 2021. Map produced by EC-JRC.
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Dozens of people are feared dead in India after a Himalayan glacier broke apart and crashed into a hydroelectric dam, with people hurriedly being evacuated amid rising water levels on a nearby river.

Footage from TV channels and news agency ANI showed water gushing towards the dam in the northern state of Uttarakhand on Sunday, washing away parts of it and whatever else was in its path.

“There was a cloud of dust as the water went by. The ground shook like an earthquake,” resident Om Agarwal told Indian TV.

Speaking to reporters at a news briefing in Dehra Dun, the capital of Uttarakhand state, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that “seven bodies have been recovered from the site and rescue operations are going on.”

Om Prakash, Uttarakhand’s chief secretary, said earlier as many as 150 people were feared dead but “the actual number has not been confirmed yet.”

The state-run NTPC hydropower project site was damaged after a broken glacier caused a major river surge that swept away bridges and roads, near Joshimath in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, on February 7, 2021 [Ajay Bhatt/AFP]

Most of the missing were workers at two power plants that were battered by the deluge, caused by a huge chunk of glacier that slipped off a mountainside further upstream, said Uttarakhand’s police chief Ashok Kumar.

“There were 50 workers at Rishi Ganga plant and we have no information about them. Some 150 workers were at Tapovan,” he added. “About 20 are trapped inside a tunnel. We are trying to reach the trapped workers.”

With the main road washed away, the tunnel was filled with mud and rocks and paramilitary rescuers had to climb down a hillside on ropes to get access to the entrance.

Hundreds of troops and paramilitaries along with military helicopters and other aircraft have been sent to the region.