VILLAGES IN DANGER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 15 August 1928, Page 7

VILLAGES IN DANGER

ON INDIAN FRONTIER.

TORRENT FROM LAKE. TOE BARRIER COLLAPSED. 'United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) DELHI, Aug. 14. Villages in Kashmir and the northern parts of the Punjab are gravely endangered as the result of the collapse of a mammoth ice barrier holding hack millions of tons of water pent up in the former bed of the river Shayak, in the Karakoram range near Leh, Kashmir. The dam burst at nine o’clock on Sundav night, and the torrent is now rushing with great force towards the plains from a height of 17,000 feet. All the vi Jages below the flood level of the Indus have been evacuated, and thousands of refugees are pouring into Peshawur. Colonel Howell, British Resident at Kashmir, had been encamped at the site of the dam for several days, and was the first to give warning of the break. Immediately a chain of giant bonfires was lighted, stretching 200 miles along the loftiest mountains and river banks. To assist evacuation, large forces of police and soldiers are posted on the banks of the Kabul and Indus rivers. Nowshera, a big military station, lias been evacuated, as it is feared that if it is attacked and the bridge swept away the north-west frontier will be cut off. Before the collapse of the ice barrier the lake was nine miles long and 500 feet deep in places. The ice wall was 1200 feet thick and 1000 feet wide. The water level had* been rising two feet, dailv for several weeks past.