Flash floods kill at least 4 and trap others under debris in northern India

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Flash floods swept away several homes and shops in northern India, killing at least four people and leaving many others trapped under debris, officials said Tuesday.

Local television channels showed flood waters surging down a mountain and crashing into Dharali, a Himalayan mountain village in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state. The flood waters inundated homes, swept away roads and destroyed a local market.

“About a dozen hotels have been washed away and several shops have collapsed,” said Prashant Arya, an administrative officer, adding that rescuers, including the Indian army and police, were searching for the missing.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said rescue agencies were working “on a war footing.”

“We are doing everything possible to save lives and provide relief,” he said in a statement.

India’s National Disaster Management Authority said it had requested three helicopters from the federal government to assist in the rescue and relief operations as rescuers struggled to access the remote terrain.

Officials have not provided a figure for those trapped or missing.

India’s weather agency has forecast more heavy rains in the region in the coming days. Authorities have asked schools to remain closed in several districts, including Dehradun and Haridwar cities.

Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in Uttarakhand, a Himalayan region prone to flash floods and landslides during the monsoon season. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions.

Over 6,000 people died and 4,500 villages were affected when a similar cloudburst devastated Uttarakhand state in 2013.

Experts say cloudbursts have increased in recent years partly due to climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions.

The flooding in northern India is the latest in a series of disasters that have battered the Himalayan mountains, which span across five countries, in the last few months.

Flooding and landslides as a result of heavy rains and glaciers melting due to high temperatures have killed over 300 people in Pakistan, reported the country’s disaster agency. In 2024 alone, there were 167 disasters in Asia — including storms, floods, heat waves and earthquakes — which was the most of any continent, according to the Emergency Events Database maintained by the University of Louvain, Belgium. These led to losses of over $32 billion, the researchers found.

A 2023 report by Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development found that glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush and Himalayan Mountain ranges. The study found that at least 200 of the more than 2,000 glacial lakes in the region are at risk of overflowing, which can cause catastrophic damage downstream.

Associated Press writer Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru contributed to this report.

Members of India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) take a break during a rescue operation from the flooded residential areas along the banks of the river Ganga following heavy monsoon rains, in Prayagraj, India, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Stranded cows look out from a submerged house along the banks of the river Ganga following heavy monsoon rains in Prayagraj, India, Tuesday, Aug.5, 2025.(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

A stray dog stands on the roof of a submerged house along the banks of the river Ganga following heavy monsoon rains in Prayagraj, India, Tuesday, Aug.5, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Members of India's National Disaster Response Force distribute food supplies to stranded residents in a submerged area following heavy monsoon rains along the banks of the River Ganga, in Prayagraj, India Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

An aerial view of submerged houses on the banks of the river Ganga following heavy monsoon rains, in Prayagraj, India, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Vote counting was underway Friday in Uganda’s tense presidential election, which was held a day earlier amid an internet shutdown, voting delays and complaints by an opposition leader who said some of his polling agents had been detained by the authorities.

Opposition leader Bobi Wine said Thursday he was unable to leave his house and that his polling agents in rural areas were abducted before voting started, undermining his efforts to prevent electoral offenses such as ballot stuffing.

Wine is hoping to end President Yoweri Museveni's four-decade rule in an election during which the military was deployed and heavy security was posted outside his house near Kampala, the Ugandan capital, after the vote.

The musician-turned-politician wrote on X on Thursday that a senior party official in charge of the western region had been arrested, adding there was “massive ballot stuffing everywhere.”

Rural Uganda, especially the western part of the country, is a ruling-party stronghold, and the opposition would be disadvantaged by not having polling agents present during vote counting.

To try to improve his chances of winning, Wine had urged his supporters to “protect the vote” by having witnesses document alleged offenses at polling stations, in addition to deploying official polling agents.

Wine faced similar setbacks when he first ran for president five years ago. Museveni took 58% of the vote, while Wine got 35%, according to official results. Wine said at the time that the election had been rigged in favor of Museveni, who has spoken disparagingly of his rival.

Museveni, after voting on Thursday, said the opposition had infiltrated the 2021 election and defended the use of biometric machines as a way of securing the vote in this election.

Museveni has served the third-longest tenure of any African leader and is seeking to extend his rule into a fifth decade. The aging president’s authority has become increasingly dependent on the military, which is led by his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.

Voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station, during the presidential election, in the capital, Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Election officials count ballots after the polls closed for the presidential election at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

An election official holds up unmarked ballots during the vote count after polls closed for the presidential election, at a polling center in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A political representative speaks as he works to observe and verify the counting of ballots after polls closed in the presidential election at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A supporter of leading opposition candidate Bobi Wine cheers while watching election officials count ballots, after polls closed at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)