At least 18 people were killed and nearly 100 were missing on Thursday after heavy rains caused a Himalayan glacial lake in northeast India to burst its banks, the worst such disaster in the region in more than 50 years.
Lhonak Lake in Sikkim state overflowed on Wednesday, causing major flooding that authorities said had impacted the lives of 22,000 people. It is the latest deadly weather event in South Asia's mountains being blamed on climate change.
The weather department said Sikkim received 101 mm (4 inches) of rain in the first five days of October, more than double normal levels, unleashing floods worse than one in October 1968 in which an estimated 1,000 people were killed.
The department has predicted heavy rain over the next three days in parts of Sikkim and neighbouring states.
The latest flooding was exacerbated by water released from state-run NHPC's Teesta V dam, local officials said. Four of the dam's gates had been washed away and it was not clear why they had not been opened in time, a government source told Reuters.
As of Thursday evening, 98 people were missing, 17 of whom were army personnel, state chief secretary V.B. Pathak told Reuters by phone.
Fourteen bridges had been washed away, hampering rescue operations already affected by heavy rainfall. Pathak said 18 relief camps had been opened on Thursday where food and medical assistance was being provided.
Authorities in neighbouring Bangladesh were on alert. A state-run water development board official warned that five districts in the northern part of the country could be inundated with a rise in the level of the Teesta river, which enters Bangladesh downstream of Sikkim.
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