Srinagar, August 14, 2025: At least 37 people were killed on Thursday when powerful torrents, triggered by a sudden cloudburst, swept through a Himalayan mountain village in India-occupied Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, officials said. The disaster marks the second major deadly flooding incident in India this month.
“Dead bodies of 37 people have been recovered,” said Mohammad Irshad, a senior disaster management official, adding that there was no confirmed figure for the missing. He said 150 people were rescued, including 50 with severe injuries, all of whom were shifted to nearby hospitals.
Sushil Kumar, a resident of nearby Atholi village, told AFP: “I saw at least 15 dead bodies brought to the local hospital.”
The flooding struck Chasoti town in Kishtwar, a stopover on a popular pilgrimage route. The disaster comes just over a week after floods and a mudslide engulfed an entire village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
Earlier, Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Sharma said, “We have found 34 dead bodies and rescued 35 injured people. There are chances of more bodies being recovered.”
Television footage showed panicked pilgrims weeping as water inundated the village. Local media reported that community kitchens set up for pilgrims were swept away by the raging floodwaters.
The incident occurred at around 11:30 a.m. local time (11:00 a.m. PKT), said Ramesh Kumar, the divisional commissioner of Kishtwar, adding that police and disaster response teams were on site. “Army and air force teams have also been activated. Search and rescue operations are underway,” he said.
Omar Abdullah, chief minister of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, posted on X that “the news is grim” and that verified updates from the disaster-hit area were arriving slowly.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, a cloudburst is a sudden, intense downpour of over 100 millimetres of rain within an hour, capable of triggering flash floods, landslides, and large-scale destruction—particularly in mountainous regions during the monsoon.
The weather office in Srinagar had forecast heavy rain for several parts of occupied Kashmir, including Kishtwar, and warned residents to avoid unstable structures, electric poles, and old trees due to the risk of mudslides and flash floods.
Crowds gathered at Kishtwar’s main hospital as rescuers carried the injured on stretchers, racing against time to save lives amid fears of more rain in the coming hours.
