Chandigarh, December 17
Dense fog that enveloped the entire north-west region today claimed four lives and disrupted rail, air and road services.
The Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) cautioned people living at 2,800 metres altitude in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal to avoid going outdoors in view of avalanche.
As visibility at most places was reduced to nil, a school bus collided head on with a mini bus near Dhesia village, on the Goraya-Jandiala road in Punjab this morning, killing its driver and a student, Harkirat Singh. Eight students sustained serious injures.
A cyclist was drowned in Hariana of Hoshiarpur district, when he slipped due to poor visibility into Kandi Canal last night.
A truck driver was crushed to death by another truck while he was seeking help to bring back his truck on the road.
Around 60 Leh-bound passengers, were stranded here today as the Indian Airlines flight from New Delhi, which was inordinately delayed, failed to land here and flew back. Weather permitting, the passengers would be flown tomorrow morning.
Chandigarh was covered with dense fog with near-zero visibility. Meteorological Department sources said dense fog also engulfed Amritsar, Halwara, Ambala and Sirsawa.
The Mumbai-Delhi-Chandigarh Indian Airlines flight was delayed by nearly 40 minutes while a Jet Airways flight scheduled to arrive here from Delhi was delayed due to bad weather conditions.
Several trains coming from the Delhi side to destinations in Haryana and Punjab were delayed ranging from 30 minutes to several hours.
SRINAGAR: Heavy avalanche hit the frontier district of Kupwara, claiming three lives, sources said on Wednesday.
Three residents of Roshanpora village, hired by the Army to clear a road off snow along the Line of Control, were killed when an avalanche struck Sindoo Gali on Tuesday, the sources said.
The bodies of the deceased, identified as Mohammad Rafiq, Ghulam Hassan Bhat and Rafiq Ahmad, could not be retrieved as the area has witnessed heavy snow over the past few days.
— UNI, PTI
