Nearly 1,500 tourists stranded in north Sikkim as rains continue, search for missing 8 suspended
Gangtok (PTI): Nearly 1,500 tourists were stranded in various parts of north Sikkim on Saturday as the main road was blocked due to landslides triggered by incessant rains, officials said.
On the other side, the search for the missing eight tourists was disrupted by heavy rains, and it was finally suspended after the water level in the Teesta river increased, they said.
One person was killed, two injured, and eight others went missing when a vehicle in which 11 tourists were travelling plunged into the Teesta river in Mangan district on Thursday night. The vehicle plunged more than 1,000 feet into the river near Munsithang along the Lachen-Lachung highway.
Mangan's SP Sonam Detchu Bhutia said 115 tourists are stranded in Lachen and 1,350 tourists in Lachung.
"Since exit from both directions is closed due to landslides at multiple locations, the tourists have been advised to remain in their hotels, and once the roads are completely opened, they shall be shifted," he said.
Incessant rainfall lashed the district throughout the day, especially the Chungthang sub-division, officials said
Power supply, which was snapped on Friday afternoon, was restored this evening, while efforts are underway to restore the drinking water supply by Sunday, they said.
The mobile connectivity was restored after nearly 24 hours, around 3 pm, they said.
Due to heavy rainfall induced by cloud burst in the area, the water level in the river Teesta has increased, they added.
The Lachung road was restored this evening, but the road from Pegong (Chungthang) to Phidang via Shipgyer, Sangkalang is closed due to multiple landslides, an official said.
"No tourist permits have been issued today, and will also not be issued tomorrow for visiting north Sikkim," he said.
Mangan's District Collector Anant Jain said he is stationed at the site where the tourist vehicle plunged into the Teesta and is overseeing the rescue efforts.
The SP said, "A continuous heavy rainfall and a swollen Teesta river have hampered the search to locate the eight missing persons. The search will resume as soon as weather conditions improve."
He said four identity cards and six mobile phones have been recovered by the search team from the river banks near the accident site.
Of the 11 persons on the ill-fated vehicle, two were identified as Swayam Supratim Nayak and Sairaj Jena, both from Odisha. They were rescued on the night of the accident and are undergoing treatment at the STNM Hospital in Gangtok.
"Search is still on for the remaining eight persons, which includes the driver of the vehicle, while one person was found dead," the SP said.
Of the eight missing tourists, four are from Odisha and two each from Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, he said.
They were Ajit Kumar Nayak, Sunita Nayak, Sahil Jena and Itshiri Jena from Odisha, Debjyoti Joy Dev and Swapnanil Deb from Tripura, and Kaushalendra Pratap Singh and Ankita Singh from Uttar Pradesh, he added.
The driver was identified as Passang Denu Sherpa of Singhik in North Sikkim.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
