Sikkim toll 11

TT; Gangtok, Sept. 25: The death toll in the flash flood in North Sikkim climbed to 11 with the recovery of four more bodies from Rangma near Chungthang this afternoon. Twenty people went missing when a flash flood triggered by incessant rain struck Rangma and the nearby Pegong in North Sikkim on Friday night. Seven bodies were recovered from Rangma and nine persons are still missing. The bodies found today were of two Border Roads Organisation employees S.K. Sikhya and Siddhi Ram and their wives.

 “The bodies have been airlifted out of Rangma in a helicopter and handed over to family members in Gangtok,” said A.K. Das, the joint director of the BRO. Searches are still on to trace five BRO employees at Pegong and four Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel at Rangma. The relief commissioner, S.B.S. Bhaduria, said the government couldn’t airdrop essential commodities to Toong near Chungthang as scheduled today because of inclement weather. The village has been cut off from the rest of the state since Friday night after the landslides.