The death count in the flash flood triggered by a cloudburst over a glacier-fed lake in the Teesta river basin in the north eastern Indian state of Sikkim has mounted to 14 while 102 others, including 22 army personnel, remained missing, officials said on Thursday.

At least 2,011 people have been rescued so fare, while the calamity that occurred on Wednesday affected 22,034 people, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority (SSDMA) said in its latest bulletin.

The lake burst in South Lhonak lake in North Sikkim also resulted in the breach of the Chungthang dam, which is the largest hydropower project in the state.

More than 3,000 tourists from various parts of India are stranded in Sikkim following the disaster, Sikkim Chief Secretary V B Pathak said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh described the glacial lake burst at Lonak in Sikkim as "deeply heart-wrenching" and said relief and rescue operations in the area are in progress amidst extremely bad weather.

Intense rainfall has caused extensive damage, with over 150 houses in the industrial belt at Rangpo, located along the banks of the river Teesta, being affected.

A stretch of the national highway, which connects Sikkim capital town Gangtok to Siliguri in neighbouring West Bengal, has been affected.

Among the people missing or injured in the aftermath of the disaster, scores of residents belong to Chungthang in Mangan district, as well as from Dikchu and Singtam in Gangtok district, and Rangpo in Pakyong district.

Indian Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba directed on Wednesday that the evacuation of people stranded in the tunnel of Chungthang dam and tourists be taken up on a priority basis. 

The National Remote Sensing Centre, one of Indian national space agency’s centres, has conducted a satellite-based study on the burst in Lhonak lake by obtaining temporal satellite images (before and after) and said “it is observed that lake is burst and about 105 hectares area has been drained out (28 September 2023 image versus October 4, 2023) which might have created a flash flood downstream,” according to the agency statement on Wednesday.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday said the possible cause of the flash flood in Sikkim could be a combination of heavy rainfall and a the lake burst Flood at South Lhonak lake.