More than 200 stranded tourists evacuated from Sikkim's Lachung

More than 200 tourists have been evacuated while around 1,000 are still stranded in Lachung in Sikkim's landslide-hit Mangan district, a senior police officer said on Tuesday.

The tourists were evacuated via Chungthang and taken to Mangan town from where the vehicles have been arranged by the Transport department to take them to Gangtok, Superintendent of Police (SP) Sonam Detchu Bhutia said.

Around 150 stranded tourists were evacuated on Tuesday while 64 were evacuated on Monday from North Sikkim's Lachung and moved to Mangan town, officials said.

On the second day of evacuation of tourists stranded at Lachung and the northern regions of Mangan district, 15 tourists have been evacuated so far. 

Also Read: Sikkim: District administration orders closure of schools in Mangan due to safety concerns

The district administrative officials along with officials of line departments, BRO, SDRF, NDRF and volunteers have been tirelessly helping tourists get to safer grounds. More evacuation is expected as the day progresses.

The Mangan district administration on Tuesday ordered the closure of all government schools in the district with immediate effect due to safety concerns of students in view of damage to property and road blockages.
    
An order issued by District Magistrate Hem Kumar Chettri said government schools in Manul, Singhik, Mangan and Mangshilla clusters of Mangan block and Lingdong, Hee Gyathang, Passingdong, Lingzya, Tingvong and Gor clusters of Dzongu block will remain closed till further orders.

The order stated that the district magistrate deemed it unsafe for the students to attend schools in view of the damage to property and road blockages in different areas of Mangan district due to continuous and heavy rainfall that occurred on the intervening night of June 12-13.