9 dead, 140 missing after glacier breaks and triggers flooding in India

At least nine people are dead and 140 missing after part of a glacier in the Himalayas broke off on Sunday, causing water, debris, boulders, and mud to surge down into villages in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.

More than 2,000 people are part of the search and rescue effort, trying to get to villagers who are under the debris. A hydroelectric plant was destroyed while another that was under construction was damaged; authorities said 12 workers at the site have been rescued and 30 remain trapped.

Dinesh Negi lives in the village of Raini, and told The Associated Press that when a piece of the Nanda Devi glacier snapped off on Sunday morning, "We heard a bang, which shook our village. We knew something wrong had happened. We could see the fury of the river." Water trapped inside the glacier was released when it cracked open.

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Anjal Prakash, research director and adjunct professor at the Indian School of Business, has worked with the United Nations to study global warming, and told AP this "looks very much like a climate change event as the glaciers are melting due to global warming."