At least 40 people have died in a valley in northeast India following floods caused by the overflow of a Himalayan glacial lake on Wednesday, according to a death toll issued on Friday by authorities in the two affected states.
"Nineteen bodies have been found," V.B. Pathak, Sikkim state's top official, told French news agency AFP. Shama Parveen, district magistrate in neighboring West Bengal, told AFP that 21 bodies had been found in his state over the past three days.
The previous death toll announced by the authorities on Thursday was "at least 14," but search and rescue teams downstream recovered more bodies overnight as the waters headed towards the Bay of Bengal.
Nearly 8,000people took refuge in makeshift relief camps in schools, government offices and guesthouses, according to a statement by the authorities in Sikkim.
As weather conditions improved on Friday, "there may be a window of opportunity to evacuate stranded tourists by helicopter," the statement added.
The affected area, a remote mountainous region of the Himalayas, lies close to the border with Nepal and China. Lake Lhonak, which overflowed its banks causing widespread destruction in a valley downstream, lies at the foot of a glacier close to Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak.
The flooding of glacial lakes, often accompanied by falling rocks, is becoming increasingly frequent as global temperatures rise and icy areas melt.
