DEHRADUN, India, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- At least 43 people are believed dead in landslides that buried three mountain villages in northern India, officials said Saturday.
Rescue workers had recovered 15 bodies following the disaster early Friday, and at least 28 more were feared buried, the Hindustan Times reported.
The slide occurred after hours of heavy rain, 5,000 feet above sea level on the southern slopes of the Himalayas. The villages -- Jhetalan, Laa and Maati -- are about 300 miles north of Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand, in the Munsiyari area bordered by Nepal and Tibet.
"The impact of the rains was so heavy that a whole mountain came sliding down on the three villages, instantly destroying several dwellings," said Prakash Pant, planning, labor and parliamentary affairs minister .
Members of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police joined the hunt for the missing. A police official said 29 bodies had been found.
Efforts to find survivors and bodies have been slowed by the difficult terrain.
