Kishtwar has already seen around 60 deaths and over 100 injuries, but the full extent of the disaster remains hidden beneath heaps of rubble and boulders or has been washed away by fast-moving waters as authorities race against time to retrieve the victims.

No one knows the actual number of missing persons, with some estimates suggesting it is in the hundreds.

A flash flood triggered by a massive cloudburst hit a remote mountain village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district on Thursday, wreaking havoc on a religious pilgrimage site.

Officials said around a few hundred people who were eating food at a community kitchen or loitering around the place were the worst hit.

Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said around 60 people have lost their precious lives and more than 100 are injured.

“There are several others who are missing. We do not have the actual numbers,” Omar said at an Independence Day gathering in Srinagar.

District development council chairperson Pooja Thakur said the number of missing could be in the hundreds.

“There are people who could be trapped under the debris, but many others were washed away. The lists that are circulating, giving the number of missing, are worrying,” Thakur told The Telegraph.

“We are told that around 150 people were present inside the langar (community kitchen). It looks like there are a few survivors among them. Yesterday we had hope, but as time passes, our hope is fading.”

A district official said rumours are compounding their problems and the actual number of missing could be less.

A help desk set by the government has received numerous distress calls, and they are trying to trace 67 people reported missing. Villagers have reported seeing several bodies floating in the Chenab river, whose retrieval is underway.

The flash flood has turned the main camping site of a local Machail Mata Yatra in Chositi village into an area strewn with massive boulders and debris. The 8.5km trek to the shrine, located at 9,500ft, begins from the village.

“It looks like the entire mountain has caved in. These boulders helped divert the water away from the village. Otherwise, the entire village would have turned into rubble,” Thakur said, adding that a dozen houses were damaged in the tragedy.

Manohar Lal, a resident of Gulabgard who is camping in the affected village, said nine persons from Chositi are confirmed dead.

“Three others from the village are missing. Unconfirmed reports put the number of missing in the hundreds. The situation here is very chaotic, as thousands of people who were present in the area are heading home. It is very difficult for them to move as vehicles are few and several bridges have been washed away,”
he said.

“There was a temple nearby and it has been completely washed away.”

Lal said hundreds of security force personnel, people from other agencies and volunteers were working to retrieve the body.

“Despite all the efforts, very few bodies were recovered today,” he said.

It has been difficult for the authorities to identify the victims, with officials sharing photographs of the deceased via WhatsApp groups to aid identification.

The yatra attracts thousands of people, mostly from Jammu, every year.

The chief minister said he received a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I briefed him about the situation in Kishtwar and the steps being taken by the administration,” he wrote on X.

“The government and the people hit by the tragic cloudburst are grateful for the Prime Minister’s support and all the assistance provided by the Centre.”