For survivors, a long wait as bad weather holds up rescue

Bharat Mohanty, a 34-year-old resident of Rangpo in Pakyong district of Sikkim, warns anyone heading towards a large vacant land along the banks of river Teesta: "Don't go there. There may be explosives underneath the silt."

- Joydeep Thakur

Local residents in the flash flood-ravaged Rangpo in East Sikkim pointed to what appeared to be a playground, but it was in fact a slum comprising dozens of houses until a few days back. The slum was surrounded by multiple four-to-five storey buildings on three sides, with the Teesta flowing on the fourth.

"The slum is now buried under 10-12 feet of silt and debris. The muddy water and debris also gushed into the ground floors of the adjoining buildings," Mohanty, who lived in the ground floor one of those buildings, said. Now, the entire colony plunges into darkness at night as there is no power supply since the flood hit the area in the early hours on Wednesday. Mobile connectivity has also been affected.