Flash flood sweeps away workers

At least 24 people have been killed in a flash flood in the north Indian mountain state of Himachal Pradesh.

Several others are missing the police say.

Police and staff from a nearby mountaineering institute have reached the site to help with rescue operations.

Most of those killed are said to be construction workers from Bihar state and Nepal.

Last month dozens of people were killed during a similar incident in the same area.

The incident took place at about midnight on Thursday, at a construction site when most of the workers were asleep.

"This incident took place close to Solang Nallah a popular ski spot, some 22 kilometres from the tourist town of Manali sometime between 11 PM and 1 AM Friday," a senior police officer at Manali, Devinder Thakur, told the BBC.

Road workers

The accident site is around 300 km from the state capital Simla.

"The labourers were asleep in their shanties when the flash flood swept away and drowned the sleeping labourers," Mr Thakur said.

The workers were building a road leading to a tunnel which will connect the Kullu valley to the highly inaccessible and mountainous Lahual Valley which borders Tibet.

Police said the injured have been taken to Manali where they have been admitted to hospital.

This is the second such cloudburst incident in the Kullu valley in last two months.