Shimla:
Five persons were killed in Kangra district as heavy showers in several parts of Himachal Pradesh triggered landslides and damaged houses, roads and crops.
An aged couple were buried alive when their house collapsed in a massive landslide at Netra village in Jaisinghpur area while a nine-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell on her house in Jamoon village.
The body of a youth, who slipped into a khud was recovered from Bhiral Khud, while a farmer died in his field at Panchrukhi.
About 30 houses were damaged in Palampur tehsil and several areas were cut off as landslides blocked roads at numerous places, Palampur's SDM BS Thakur said.
Heavy rains lashed several parts of the state and Palampur was wettest in the region with 159 mm of rains while Jogindernagar and Nagrota Surian received 140 mm and 120 mm rains respectively, followed by Dharamsala 100 mm and Paonta Sahib 25 mm.
The rains led to drop in maximum temperatures by 2 to 3 degrees and Una which was hottest in the region recorded a high of 28.4 degrees Celsius against 32.4 degrees Celsius yesterday while Sundernagar and Bhuntar recorded maximum of 28.1 degrees Celsius and Shimla 19.6 degrees Celsius.
The local MeT office has predicted heavy to very heavy rains at few places in next 48 hours and rain and
thundershowers at many places in the next five days.