A string of cloudbursts triggered by heavy rain in Uttarakhand’s Tehri district on Saturday damaged scores of houses in more than half a dozen villages in the state’s Balganga valley. While there are no reports on any casualty so far, the cloudbursts also left hundreds of devotees on the Char Dhaam Yatra, a pilgrimage, stranded, The Indian Express reported.

The cloudbursts took place around 3 pm in Kothiara village, where some 50 residential houses were affected, and at least a hundred animals are feared buried alive under debris. The villages of Kemra and Siliara saw similar cloudbursts and were inundated. A motorbridge was washed away; two storeys of a hostel were caught under the rubble; a public school building was razed in a flash flood.

District Magistrate in charge Ahmed Iqbal said people were alert enough to run to safety as the rain thundered down took place during daytime. Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Ghansali Vinod Kumar said the stranded pilgrims were being evacuated to safety.