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Sinking land forces hundreds to leave Indian temple town

Published:Saturday | January 7, 2023 | 4:35 PM
A motorist navigates his way through a crack on a road in Joshimath, India, Tuesday, January 3, 2023. Authorities have stopped all construction activity and started shifting hundreds of people panicking after seeing a temple collapse and cracks in over 600 houses due to subsidence of land in a northern Indian hilly town, officials said on Saturday. (AP Photo)

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Authorities in an Indian Himalayan town have stopped construction activities and started moving hundreds of people to temporary shelters after a temple collapsed and cracks appeared in over 600 houses because of sinking of land, officials said Saturday.

Residents of Joshimath town in Uttarakhand state say they started noticing cracks in houses, especially after 2021 floods in the region.

No injury was reported in the temple collapse late Friday and those living nearby had vacated the area a day earlier.

Himanshu Khurana, a district administrator, said more than 60 families have been moved to government relief camps.

The number is likely to go up to 600 families, media reports said.

Television images also showed cracks in roads, hampering the movement of vehicles.

Ranjit Sinha, a top state disaster management official, said the immediate cause of the cracks “seems to be the faulty drainage system, which has resulted in water seepage under the houses that has led to their sinking.”

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