Forty-three people have been killed and more than 37 gone missing in Himachal Pradesh due to the ravages of weather — cloudburst, flash floods, landslide — since the onset of monsoon last month, officials on Friday said. Monsoon hit the state on June 20 and has since then cost it Rs 5000 crore in damages.

Of the 43 dead, 14 were killed in cloudbursts, eight in flash floods, and one in a landslide, while seven were drowned. The most deaths, 17, took place in Mandi district where ten instances of cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides wreaked havoc on Tuesday. A search is still on for 31 people missing from this district alone, officials said.

On Friday, the personnel from NDRF rescued 65 people trapped in Bharad, Deji, Payala, and Rukchui villages after heavy rain. The downpour, followed by landslides, damaged roads and caused rivers to swell, which cut off many villages and deposited debris to people's houses and fields.