Torrential rains in the Indian Himalayas triggered landslides over the weekend that killed at least 18 people, officials said today.

Unusually heavy rainfall and melting glaciers caused deadly flash floods in the mountains of India and neighboring Pakistan and Nepal last year and two years ago with government officials increasingly blaming climate change.

Television footage from the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh showed houses flattened by landslides, buses and cars dangling from the edge of cliffs after the road gave way, and hundreds of people in shelters as emergency workers struggled to clear the rubble.

In one of the deadliest incidents, a temple collapsed in the state capital, Simia, with rescuers recovering at least nine bodiesstate officials said.

Schools and other educational institutions were ordered to close and people at risk were safely moved to shelters, state officials said.

“Another tragedy has struck Himachal Pradesh with rain falling incessantly for the past 48 hours,” the state’s chief minister, Sukhwinder Singh, said in a post on the X platform, formerly Twitter.

“Reports of downpours and landslides have come in from various parts of the state resulting in loss of precious lives and property.”

Parts of the state received up to 273mm of rain in 24 hours, the India Meteorological Department said.

“This is the first time we are seeing multiple downpours and extensive damage in the state,” said state disaster management official Pravin Panrtwaj.

In Solan sector, houses collapsed after a downpour, killing at least seven people, while a mother and her child were killed in Mandi sector when their house collapsed, Panrtwaj said.