The bodies of four more workers were recovered from the site of an avalanche in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday, taking the toll to eight, reported The Indian Express.

With this, the search and rescue operations concluded, according to the newspaper.

The avalanche struck the site of a Border Roads Organisation project between Mana village and Mana Pass on Friday morning. A total of 54 workers were clearing snow at the site when the incident took place.

Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres.

Apart from the eight workers who were killed, all others were rescued or managed to get to safety.

Earlier in the day, Lieutenant Colonel Manish Srivastava said that eight helicopters, including five from the Army, two from the Air Force and one civilian helicopter, had evacuated those rescued from the site to Joshimath Military Hospital for treatment.

“A drone-based ‘intelligent buried object detection system’ has been airlifted from Delhi and via Dehradun has reached Joshimath by MI-17 [helicopter] to assist the ongoing search and rescue operations,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that several forces, including the Army, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Air Force, the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force, were working collaboratively to provide assistance at the site, ANI reported.

Ground-penetrating radar, thermal imaging and victim-locating cameras were also being utilised to locate the workers, he added.

The chief minister noted that weather conditions in the area were improving. However, the possibility of avalanches remained high, which was prompting authorities to halt work in high-altitude areas as a precaution, he added.