The Press Trust of India news agency said the bride and bridegroom were
among the missing people who were returning home from a wedding ceremony in a
village in the Rajouri region, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) southwest of
Srinagar, the main city in the Indian-held portion of Kashmir.
The region's wedding season has been disrupted by heavy rains and the worst
floods in 22 years, and many ceremonies have been postponed.
At least 18 people have died in the past two days, and authorities on
Thursday closed schools and stopped train services in the Kashmir valley.
Meteorologists said the heavy rains were likely to continue for another two
days.
Police officer Imtiyaz Hussain said the 18 victims were swept away by
floodwaters or buried by mud from mountain slopes — 14 in the Jammu region and
four in the Kashmir valley. They included a paramilitary officer whose bunker
collapsed on him.
Soldiers and rescue workers used boats to move thousands of people to
higher ground. At least 100 villages across the Kashmir valley were flooded by
overflowing lakes and rivers, including the Jhelum river, which was up to 1.5
meters (4 feet) above its danger level, officials said.
Landslides and floods are common in India during the monsoon season, which
runs from June through September. More than 100 people died after a massive
landslide hit a village near Pune, a city in western India, recently.
Parts of Srinagar were also flooded. In Bemina, a large neighborhood,
thousands of residents waded through ankle-high water that entered their homes.
Authorities evacuated 5,000 people from the neighborhood and 100 others
were believed to be stranded there.
Authorities also asked residents in several other areas in Srinagar to move
to safer places amid heavy rains.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both. They
have fought three wars, two of them over control of Kashmir, since winning
independence from Britain in 1947.
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