Updated News - " At Least 34 Killed in India Landslides "

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At Least 34 Killed in India Landslides

GANGTOK, India (Reuter) - Incessant rains caused powerful landslides in
the Himalayan mountains in northeastern India and killed at least 34
people, burying many victims in their sleep, authorities said Monday.

The police chief in Sikkim state, P.C. Sharma, said 38 people were
injured overnight in at least nine landslides in the state capital,
Gangtok.

In one incident, a wave of mud and boulders swept a four-story building
onto two government bungalows, crushing nine people, Sharma said. A
guard protecting the state governor's residence was swept to his death.

The police chief said 30 bodies had so far been recovered and the army
had been called out to assist in relief operations and pull bodies from
the rubble.

Other people were still believed buried under debris, and the death toll
was expected to rise, he said.

"I heard a loud noise around nine last evening and rushed out along with
my family members and took shelter on the road," survivor Shipintso
Bhutia told Reuters.

"Seconds after I saw the hillside tumbling down which took away my
house." Nine people were buried alive when the landslide hit the
building, he said.

Mountainous Sikkim is hedged in by Tibet in the north, Nepal in the west
and Bhutan in the east. It was annexed by India in 1975 after its
legislature voted to abolish the monarchy and join the Indian union.

Landslides are common in the region during the monsoon, which usually
hits Sikkim later in the year. Gangtok, at about 5,000 feet altitude, is
ringed by mountains that rise to about 8,000 feet.

"We are accustomed to landslides here and there, but this time it's
something very serious," Sharma said.

About 1,000 people had been evacuated to seven relief camps.

The rains cut power and water supplies, and the government restricted
the movements of private vehicles and ordered offices closed for two
days, he said.