Search for three missing after Delhi vehicle plunges into Lohit River in Arunachal enters fourth day

The search for three people who remain missing after a Delhi-registered vehicle carrying 10 people plunged nearly 300 feet from a road cliff into the Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district entered its fourth day on Sunday, August 16.
 

The accident occurred at around 6 am on August 13 in the Sarti area along NH-113 on the Walong-Hawai road, near the India-China border. The vehicle fell from the road into a deep gorge before landing in the Lohit River and was subsequently submerged.
 

One woman was killed and six others, including four men, a woman and a child, were rescued with injuries. Three people remain missing.
 

The incident was reported to the District Disaster Management Officer (DDMO), Anjaw, at around 9.59 am, following which a search-and-rescue operation was launched by the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), in coordination with Anjaw Police, the Indian Army, SDRF, district administration and local residents and volunteers.
 

On Sunday, the fourth day of the operation, the NDRF team began the search at around 8.45 am, with assistance from the SDRF. The teams are focusing on downstream stretches of the Lohit River and locations where the missing persons may have been carried by the strong current.
 

The DDMA is coordinating the operation, while local police and medical teams remain on standby at the incident site.
 

On Saturday, SDRF and local police teams conducted an extensive combing operation downstream, covering around 12 km from the accident site. However, the missing persons could not be traced and the operation was called off at around 5 pm.
 

The NDRF team subsequently reached the site to undertake specialised underwater search operations, which commenced on Sunday in coordination with the DDMA, SDRF and local police.
 

Authorities had sought NDRF assistance as the SDRF had limited resources for the search and recovery operation. Efforts are continuing to locate the three missing persons and recover the submerged vehicle from the Lohit River.