Himachal cloudbursts: Rescuers spot victim, search on for 45 missing

Rescuers are attempting to blast a boulder after they spotted a victim trapped under it in Rajban village in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district on Saturday where five people are still missing.

Meanwhile, the hunt for about 45 people who went missing after cloudbursts in three districts -- Shimla, Kullu and Mandi -- resumed this morning.

According to officials, 410 rescuers from teams of the Army, NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, CISF, Himachal Pradesh Police and home guards are involved in the hunt with the help of drones.

On Friday, the death toll rose to eight in the flash floods triggered by a series of cloudbursts in Kullu's Nirmand, Sainj and Malana; Mandi's Padhar and Shimla's Rampur subdivision on the night of July 31.

"A combined rescue operation is underway and efforts are afoot to search for the missing people. We are using various equipment and sensors to detect victims buried or trapped under the debris," said NDRF Commanding Officer Karam Singh whose team along with others is engaged