• Indian army uses dogs, drones and machinery to find missing persons after flash floods kill four and leave over 50 unaccounted for
• China evacuates over 75,000 from southern parts as heavy rain causes landslides, flooding
NEW DELHI/BEIJING: Deadly floods fuelled by torrential monsoon rains have devastated parts of India and China, killing several people and leaving dozens missing or trapped as rescue teams in both nations raced to find survivors, officials said on Wednesday.
In the Indian Himalayas, the army deployed sniffer dogs, drones and heavy earth-moving equipment to search for scores of people missing a day after flash floods ravaged a mountain valley.
At least four people were killed and more than 50 are unaccounted for after a wall of muddy water and debris smashed into the town of Dharali in Uttarakhand state, rescue officials said.
The Indian army said that rescue efforts were being hastened.
“Additional army columns, along with army tracker dogs, drones, logistic drones, earthmoving equipment etc., have been moved … to hasten the efforts,” the army said.
Torrential monsoon rains have hampered the rescue, with communication limited and phone lines damaged.
However, the number of missing was reduced from around 100 late Tuesday as soldiers reached marooned individuals.
“The search for the missing is ongoing,” said Mohsen Shahedi from the National Disaster Response Force.
Mr Shahedi said more than 50 people were missing from Dharali, while 11 soldiers were unaccounted for from the nearby village of Harsil.
Videos broadcast on Indian media showed a surge of muddy water sweeping away multi-story apartment blocks in the tourist region on Tuesday afternoon.
Suman Semwal told the Indian Express his father saw the flood hitting Dharali with a “rumbling noise” from a village uphill.
“They tried to scream, but could not make themselves heard,” Semwal said.
“The people couldn’t comprehend what was happening. The flood waters struck them in 15 seconds.”
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the flood was caused by an intense “cloudburst” of rain and that rescue teams were deployed “on a war footing.”
A large part of the town was swamped by mud, with officials estimating it was 50 feet deep in places, swallowing some buildings entirely.
Climate change experts warned the disaster was a “wake-up call”.
Hydrologist Manish Shrestha said the 270 millimeters (10 inches) of rain that fell within 24 hours was an “extreme event”.
“Such intense rainfall events are becoming increasingly common and could be linked to climate change,” said Shrestha, from the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.
Harjeet Singh, a climate activist from the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation in New Delhi, said the problem was exacerbated by “unscientific, unsustainable, and reckless construction” in the name of development.
“Global warming is super-charging our monsoons with extreme rain,” Singh said. “The devastating loss … must be our final wake-up call.”
China evacuates thousands
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated as heavy rains batter southern China, flooding homes and triggering landslides, state media said on Wednesday.
In southern Guangdong province, a landslide in its capital, Guangzhou, trapped 14 people.
One person was later confirmed dead, state broadcaster CCTV said.
More than 75,000 people in Guangdong had been evacuated by noon on Wednesday, according to CCTV Footage showed people wading in waist-deep water and clinging to a submerged car.
Of the 14 people trapped by the landslide that hit Guangzhou’s Dayuan village around 8:30am seven had been rescued and were “not in immediate danger,” CCTV reported.
The body of an eighth person was recovered later in the evening, and rescue efforts for the remaining missing were continuing.
Authorities activated an emergency response in Guangdong due to severe flooding.
The central government is also allocating 100 million yuan for the recovery effort, stating that continuous rainfall had caused “heavy casualties and property losses.”
Heavy rains in northern Beijing killed 44 people last month, with the capital’s rural suburbs hit the hardest.
A landslide in a village in Hebei province, which encircles Beijing, killed another eight people.
Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat.
Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2025
