'Had to come out alive': Himachal woman survives 5 hours under landslide debris

KULLU: Call it a miracle in Mandi. Finding herself buried in a landslide at Sharan village in Seraj valley of Himachal's Mandi district, a 20-year-old woman clawed out a breathing nook for herself and kept digging with her bare hands for five hours until she was found and rescued.

Every second, the mound of mud, stones and debris pressed down on Tuneja Thakur. Every second, she clawed back. Even as she gasped for air, Tuneja realised she would be dead in seconds if she didn't fight back. "I removed enough mud to be able to breathe," she said.

Outside, her family and villagers desperately searched for her for five hours. Inside the crushing trap, it seemed like a lifetime. "I just knew one thing - I had to come out alive," she said. Eventually, Tuneja was pulled out by her parents.

Amid the death and destruction wreaked by flash floods in Mandi , Tuneja’s battle for survival stands out for sheer tenacity in one of the villages worst affected by the June 30-July 1 cloudburst. The flash flood struck at around 11.30pm on June 30.

“Everybody ran out. It was pouring and floodwater was entering houses. People were screaming in panic. I stepped out looking for a safe place when a land mass suddenly slid down and fell on me just around the corner of my house,” said Tuneja.

Himachal deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri and leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur met her last week and praised her death-defying courage.