5,000 missing and nearly 600 dead so far in North India floods

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/21/india-floods-uttarakhand-600-deaths
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The death toll from monsoon flooding and landslides in mountainous northern India rose to nearly 600 on Friday with rescuers finding bodies in the Ganges and in the muddy, broken earth, officials said.

The Uttarakhand state chief minister, Vijay Bahuguna, told CNN-IBN television channel on Friday that 556 bodies had been seen buried deep in mud and the army was trying to recover them. Rescuers also found 40 bodies floating in the Ganges near the pilgrimage site of Haridwar, said Rajiv Swaroop, a police officer.

Rakesh Sharma, another state official, said on Thursday that the death toll might reach the thousands, but the exact figure would not be known until the entire region had been checked.

A spokesman for Uttarakhand, Amit Chandola, said the rescue operation was centred on evacuating nearly 27,000 people trapped in the worst-hit Kedarnath temple area, one of the holiest Hindu sites dedicated to the god Shiva, located high in the Garhwal Himalayan range. The temple escaped major damage, but debris covered the area around it and television images showed the bodies of pilgrims strewn around the area.
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Please send good vibes to the people of India - this is devastation