The death toll in the flash floods triggered by cloudbursts in three districts of Himachal Pradesh on July 31 midnight rose to 26 with recovery of four bodies on Friday, officials said.

As the search operation to trace about 30 missing people entered the ninth day, the families of the victims have lost hopes of seeing their loved ones alive.

Four bodies were found at Dogri area near Sunni town in Shimla district this morning, taking the death toll in Samej to 14.

As per preliminary investigation three of the deceased are women and one is a teenage boy. The victims are yet to be identified, Deputy Commissioner Shimla Anupam Kashyap said.

The tragedy occurred in Kullu's Nirmand, Sainj and Malana, Mandi's Padhar and Shimla's Rampur subdivision. The worst hit was Samej village on the border of Shimla and Kullu district where about 20 people are still missing.

Of the total, 14 bodies have been recovered from Rampur, nine from Mandi's Rajbhan village and three from Nirmand/Bagipul in Kullu district.

The search operations are going on in about 85 km area.

Family members of 30 missing people who have been camping at the sites since the tragedy struck have now lost hope and are praying for the recovery of the bodies of their loved ones so they can respectfully perform their last rites.

The chances of getting bodies are dim as the area washed out has been searched, Himachal Pradesh Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi had said.

Meanwhile, the local meteorological office issued an “orange” alert, warning for heavy to very heavy rain, thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in the state on Saturday.

According to the officials, 663 rescuers from the Army, NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, CISF, Himachal Pradesh Police and home guards are involved in the hunt. Besides this more machinery, sniffer dog squad, drones and other equipment have also been deployed.

A total of 100 people have been killed in rain-related incidents and the state has suffered losses of about Rs 802 crores between June 27 and August 8, officials added.

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