22 missing after avalanche buries BRO camp in Uttarakhand

DEHRADUN: Twenty-two workers are missing while 33 have survived after a massive avalanche struck an

Army construction site

, trapping 55 individuals under a thick blanket of snow, near Mana village on the India-China border at more than 10,000 feet above sea level in Uttarakhand's

Chamoli district

around 5am on Friday. The avalanche buried 55 workers under about six feet of snow. The chief minister's office said 57 workers were assigned to the site, but two had taken the day off, leaving 55 at the project site.
The search for the missing continues amid

heavy snowfall

, with temperatures falling to minus 6°C in treacherous terrain. Chamoli DM Sandeep Tiwari confirmed the figures. "By noon, 10 workers were rescued and taken to Mana Hospital. By evening, the number rose to 33," he said. Indian Army said, 22 workers managed to escape on their own and reached Badrinath safely.
"The avalanche struck along the National Highway connecting Mana to Ghastoli. The workers were deployed at BRO's General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) post, about 1km beyond Mana village, on a project to double-lane the highway," a senior official coordinating the rescue operations told TOI.

The first responders were Army personnel from an Assam Regiment battalion, part of the 9th Garhwal Brigade, along with personnel from the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Continuous snowfall prevented other agencies from reaching the site immediately. Officials said the workers were sleeping in their barracks built to accommodate them during road construction work. Sources told TOI that the site had eight barracks, of which five were empty. The barracks were destroyed in the avalanche, the sources added.
The

Indian Meteorological Department

has said that the snowfall is likely to ease by Saturday afternoon. However, the Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE) has issued a yellow alert for avalanche risk in five hill districts, including Chamoli, in Uttarakhand.
CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, who visited the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) twice within few hours, said the Prime Minister's Office, the ministry of home affairs, and the defence ministry were closely monitoring the rescue operations. "The trapped workers are from different states. Those injured are receiving treatment at Army and ITBP hospitals. Once the weather clears, the administration will activate the Mana helipad to shift them to Jyotirmath and other locations for medical care," he said.