By Dipaneeta Das: In a scene straight out of a Bollywood movie, the Border Roads Organization (BRO) rescued five tourists trapped in a waterfall turned torrent in Sikkim's Singtam district. On Monday, BRO Jawans pulled the backpackers out after his car got stuck between the rocks of the waterfall.
The incident happened around 3:30 a.m., the BRO said in a statement.
โOn June 11, due to heavy rain, a small waterfall turned into a huge torrent of water, washing away a certain part of the road from Singtam to Dikchu. Unknown about the change in weather and road conditions, a Mahindra Bolero vehicle with four passengers and the driver attempted to cross the waterfall at around 3:30 am, but the force of the water was too much even for the powerful vehicle." added the statement.
The vehicle was swept away by the water, but was lucky to get pinned against some rocks, preventing it from falling into the deep gorge below. This led to a seven hour long traffic.
โThey couldn't get out because the doors were blocked by rocks on one side while the force of the water prevented them from opening the doors on the other. The brave BRO Jawans put their own lives in danger and reached the vehicle through the massive waterfall and ensured the passengers an early and safe rescue," the statement said.
The BRO sources explained that the waterfall turned into a cascading torrent due to continuous rains caused by the southwest monsoon winds on Sunday night. The incessant rains caused the collapse of the Singtam-Dikchu highway in the East Sikkim district.
The BRO was able to rescue all the passengers and the driver from the vehicle at around 5:30 am after nearly an hour of effort.
However, the extraction of the Bolero vehicle could not be carried out because the force of the water was too much for the men to handle manually. The ground officer directed the assembly of all nearby BRO earthmoving equipment to prevent the vehicle from falling over.
The path was finally cleared at 9:30 am.
