Death toll rises to 8 in Gaurikund after girl's body is recovered

The death toll in the landslide that swept away three shops in Uttarakhand's Gaurikund on the way to Kedarnath on August 4 mounted to eight after rescuers on Tuesday pulled out the body of another victim, an official said.

The body of a girl was found near the banks of the Mandakini river in Munkutiya, Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said.

The death toll in the tragedy, in which 23 people had gone missing, has risen to eight. Fifteen people are still missing, he said.

The search operation by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force and and the Yatra Management Force (YMF) personnel is going on in the area.

Twenty-three people , 17 of them originally from Nepal, went missing in the early hours of August 4 after a massive landslide triggered by a flash flood near Dat Puliya in Gaurikund hit three shops standing 50 metres above a raging Mandakini river.