Road caves in pulling car down into nala in Shimla, 3 dead

Three persons travelling in a car fell into a nala and died after a stretch of the road they were on caved in near Sharan Dhank in Nankneri area here on Tuesday.

A stretch of the Neerath-Nankheri-Pandadhar link road in Nankneri area caved in pulling the car down with it into the nala below.

Other commuters in the area saw the car plunging into the nala and informed the police. Rescue operations were carried out by the police, fire and locals and three bodies were recovered, police said.

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The deceased were identified as Veer Singh (40), Himmat Singh (28) and Ratan (50) all hailing from Nankheri. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has expressed grief over the incident.

So far, 125 persons have died in rain-related incidents and road accidents since the onset of the monsoon season on July 24. The state has suffered losses of Rs 4,636 crore as per the state emergency response centre.

As many as 647 roads including 244 in Shimla, 136 in Kullu, 83 in Sirmaur and 60 in Mandi district are still blocked while 1,115 transformers and 543 water supply schemes are disrupted in the state, officials said.

The local weather office has issued a yellow alert and predicted heavy rains at isolated places in the state for next four days till July 22.