Rescue workers have found three bodies after 20 people were reported missing from the Gaurikund area of Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district after a massive landslide 15 metres above the Mandakini river swept away several houses and shops on Friday afternoon.

District disaster management officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said: “A 100-member team from the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force, along with other rescuers, resumed work at 5.30am on Saturday. We are facing problems because of continuous rainfall.”

“We have found three bodies and are looking for the other villagers who are missing. Shops and houses have been destroyed there,” he added.

“Rudraprayag is one of the 10 most landslide-prone districts in India. The government has issued an advisory to residents, devotees and the rescue teams to be careful as frequent small and big landslides are expected here in the rainy season,” Rajwar said.

Landslides and a flash flood had killed about 4,500 people in Kedarnath, 16km from Gaurikund, in 2013.

Hari Pun, a resident of Gaurikund, told reporters that at least 10 kadis (a kind of chair on which locals carry devotees on their back from Gaurikund to Kedarnath) had been found in the debris along the Mandakini. Gaurikund is the beginning of the Kedarnath temple trek.

“There were 30 youths, mostly of Nepali origin, who were here this season to carry devotees to Kedarnath on their kadis. It is a tough journey of five-six hours. I think at least a dozen houses and shops were swept away. The rescue team has failed to remove the 5ft-thick debris from the river banks in two days,” Pun said.