A 5-storey building collapsed in Shimla as heavy rain continued in Himachal Pradesh on Monday. A video has gone viral that shows the house crashing down like a stack of cards.
The owner, Anjana Verma, said that they had evacuated the building, Raj Niwas, last night due to relentless rain and landslides.
Ms Verma alleged that cracks had appeared in the building due to a nearby four-lane road construction.
Village deputy head, Yashpal Verma, also blamed the company involved in the construction and said the building developed cracks last year.
He said the company didn't stop the construction, and said that some other houses were also in danger.
The weather office on Sunday issued a "red" alert for heavy to very heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh.
Of the 12 districts, the alert was issued for Shimla, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, Solan, Sirmaur, Una, Kullu and Chamba.
The Met Office has also warned of landslides, waterlogging, damage to vulnerable structures, traffic congestion and disruptions in essential services.
The train service on the Shimla-Kalka railway line -- a UNESCO world heritage site -- was also disrupted on Sunday as boulders and trees fell on the track near Solan's Koti area after heavy rain.
A landslide near Koti on the Shimla-Kalka national highway, which connects Shimla and Chandigarh, damaged some stretches of the road, resulting in a two-to-three-km-long traffic jam for hours.
The rain has reportedly led to the closure of 129 roads in Himachal Pradesh, with the maximum damage to roads reported from Sirmaur and Mandi districts, where 57 and 44 roads were blocked, respectively.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has directed the deputy commissioners of Kangra, Mandi, Sirmaur and Solan districts to order a closure of schools on Monday.
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