Mizoram: Traffic Movement Disrupted As Highway Caves In Due To Heavy Rain

Aizawl: Traffic movement was disrupted in Mizoram on Tuesday after a stretch of a highway linking Aizawl to the Lengpui Airport caved in following heavy rain, officials said.

No vehicles, except two-wheelers, are allowed to ply on the highway at present, they said.

The incident took place in the evening following continuous downpour, a senior official said.

“It may take some time to repair the damaged stretch of the highway,” he added.

Earlier at least 17 people, including two minors, were killed and six-seven others were missing as a stone quarry collapsed in Mizoram's Aizawl district on May 28. 

Several other people also went missing in landslides elsewhere in the state capital which was cut off from the rest of the country. The incident happened around 6 am in an area between Melthum and Hlimen on the southern outskirts of Aizawl town.

"We have recovered 17 bodies so far and the rescue operations are going on. We suspect that 6-7 more people are still trapped under the rubble," Mizoram Director General of Police Anil Shukla said .

He said that heavy rain was affecting rescue operations at the disaster site. The rain triggered landslides at several other places in the state and at least two persons have been 'swept away', Shukla said.

Aizawl's Deputy Commissioner Nazuk Kumar said that the search operations will continue till the entire site is cleared.A four-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl are among the victims of the stone quarry collapse, another police officer said.

"We have also rescued two persons alive from the site," he said.