New Delhi, 15 August

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday in the wake of a cloudburst in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district to take stock of the situation and promised all help, officials said.

A massive flash flood triggered by a cloudburst struck a remote mountain village in Kishtwar on Thursday, killing at least 60 people and injuring more than 100 others.

Meanwhile, a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Friday reached cloudburst-hit Chisoti village in Jammu and Kashmir''s Kishtwar district, officials said. At least 60 people have been killed in the disaster and 167 rescued.

Of those rescued on Thursday, 38 are in serious condition, officials said. The death toll went up steadily as the day progressed, and there are fears it could rise further.

"The NDRF team is joining the operation currently underway in the village. They reached Gulabgarh late in the night," Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar Pankaj Sharma told PTI.

Sharma, who is supervising the operation, said choppers could not be operated due to bad weather so the team came by road from Udhampur.

Two more teams are on their way and will be joining the operation as the destruction is wide and vast, officials said.

The Army has also inducted one more column to intensify the search and rescue operation, they said. Rashtriya Rifles troops have joined the operation.

Over five columns of 60 personnel each, totalling 300 troops, along with medical detachments of the White Knight Corps, are on the ground, working tirelessly in coordination with the police, SDRF, and other civilian agencies to save lives and assist those in need, they added.

Volunteer teams of Ababeel, with nine ambulances, reached the village and joined the operation yesterday, said Adil, one of the members.

"We help in retrieving bodies and shifting the injured to hospitals in Atholi and Kishtwar," he said.

Another group, Hilal Volunteers, also joined in the rescue operation and ferried the injured to hospital.