Gushing mudslides and floodwaters inundated the village of Chasoti on Thursday, washing away pilgrims who had gathered for lunch before trekking up the hill for a popular religious site, in the second such disaster in the Himalayas in a little more than a week.
"We heard a huge sound and it was followed by a flash flood and slush. People were shouting, and some of them fell in the Chenab River. Others were buried under the debris," said Rakesh Sharma, a pilgrim who was injured.
Bags, clothes and other belongings, caked in mud, lay scattered amid broken electric poles and mud on Friday, as rescue workers used ropes and crossed makeshift bridges in an attempt to extricate people from the debris.
At least 60 people were killed, more than 100 injured and another 200 still missing, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah told reporters on Friday.
The Himalayas are prone to floods and landslides, but some scientists say the intensity and frequency of these events are increasing due to climate change.
The Machail Yatra is a popular pilgrimage to the high-altitude Himalayan shrine of Machail Mata, one of the manifestations of the Goddess Durga.
Pilgrims trek to the temple from Chasoti, where the road for vehicles ends.
Thursday's incident comes a little more than a week after a similar flood and mudslide engulfed an entire village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
"Nature has been testing us. In the last few days, we have had to deal with landslides, cloudbursts and other natural calamities," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a speech on the country's 79th Independence Day.
A cloudburst, according to the Indian Meteorological Department, is a sudden, intense downpour of more than 100 millimetres of rain in just one hour that can trigger sudden floods, landslides, and devastation, especially in mountainous regions during the monsoon.
In neighbouring Nepal, at least 41 people have died, 21 are missing and 121 injured in floods, heavy rains, landslides and hailstorms since early monsoon rains started in June, according to data provided by the country's disaster management authority.
