By Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – At least seven people were killed and 16 others missing in Bhutan after flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains washed away a section of a small hydroelectric plant on Thursday, local media reported.
Rescue and search teams have rushed to the area, authorities said. Prime Minister Lotay Tshering has arrived at the site and is taking stock of the situation and guiding rescue and search operation, his office said.
A section of the 32 MW Yungichhu Hydro Power Project in a remote area in the east of the country was washed away, but the main part was not hit, the Bhutanese newspaper said in a Twitter post without elaborating.
State broadcaster BBS said seven bodies have been recovered so far and another 16 were missing.
Five of the seven killed have been identified, authorities said without giving details.
“It is a major disaster,” Bhutanese quoted an unnamed official from Druk Green Power, which is in charge of the plant’s construction, as saying. The missing included project staff, the official added.
Reuters calls to Druk Green Power were not immediately answered.
Major tragedies of this kind are relatively rare in Bhutan, which sits between China and India and has a population of just 750,000. But in 2021, at least 10 people were killed when flash floods washed away a remote mountain camp.
This year, neighbouring Nepal has seen at least 25 people killed and another 25 go missing in flash floods and landslides caused by annual monsoon rains that started in June.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and David Holmes)
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