BALTAL, (India): Sixteen people were killed in Indian-Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), with rescuers searching for dozens more missing, after flash floods swept away hundreds of tents near a popular Hindu pilgrimage site, officials said Saturday.

Around 10,000 people were camped near the remote Amarnath temple, nestled in a Himalayan mountain cave, when a sudden cloudburst triggered a deluge.

Frequent whirring helicopter sorties were evacuating the dead and an unknown number of panicked and injured pilgrims from the Baltal base camp to the north of the shrine. “We found 16 bodies so far and at least 40 are missing,” an official from the state disaster response agency told AFP.

“Security forces and all the rescue teams are looking for the missing and injured,” the official said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to media.

The Indian army said it had deployed two infantry battalions and special forces units to help with the search alongside search and rescue dog squads.