Six students are dead and 18 missing after dozens of them were washed away on Sunday, June 8, when a dam released a rush of water without warning in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
Forty-eight students from an engineering college in the southern city of Hyderabad were on a trip, and had stopped to take pictures on the rocky embankment of the Beas River nestled between hills.
This horrifying footage captured the exact moment when 24 students were swept away by a sudden flood of water discharged by a nearby hydropower plant. (Warning: Disturbing content.)
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The students were taking photographs in what they thought was a shallow stream when suddenly the waters of the river rose 8 feet. Scrambling and screaming for help, 24 students managed to escape, but 24 got washed away, along with a tour operator.
Three days after the tragedy, six bodies were fished out of the river by rescue workers. The tour operator and 18 other students are still missing as search efforts continue.
Survivors said that the dam did not sound an alarm about its floodgates being opened. However the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh said that hooters were sounded, but the students may not have heard them.
"We don’t expect all the missing students to be alive," a parent of one of the missing students told the Indian Express. "We now need at least bodies to be handed over to us. We want to see their face. We are begging now. Please, please."
The chief minister, Vibhadra Singh, said that the teachers should have taken precautions and prevented students from going into the water. He has ordered an inquiry into the "unfortunate" incident.
