NEW DELHI — At least 112 people were killed by flash floods and enveloping mud torrents Friday in a usually peaceful vacation corner of Indian-controlled Kashmir after a massive downpour inundated steep mountain ravines.
Troops pulled survivors from freshly formed bogs of mud and rubble in Ladakh, an area of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. Cellphone towers in Ladakh toppled, severing communication in many areas and adding to the hurdles facing rescuers, said state police chief Kuldeep Khoda.
The storm followed the worst flooding in decades in neighboring Pakistan, which left hundreds of thousands displaced and at least 1,500 dead.
At least 400 people were injured in Kashmir as newly formed rivers destroyed houses and vehicles. Televised images from the state-run Doordarshan network, the only one able to transmit from the area, showed houses in the town of Leh buried under as much as 10 feet of mud. Some buildings had been shifted several hundred feet.
Officials said about 2,000 foreign tourists were in the remote Himalayan vacation haven, but there were no immediate reports of casualties among them. Visitors recalled a powerful thunderstorm hitting after midnight followed by torrents of hail.
August is peak tourist season as many Westerners, including hikers, backpackers and adventure-sports enthusiasts, descend on Ladakh, a mountainous desert about 11,500 feet above sea level.
