More Than 100 Feared Dead In India After Himalayan Glacier Breaks

Hundreds of soldiers and others were Monday searching for at least 125 people unaccounted for after a part of a glacier broke away - releasing water, rocks and other debris down a mountain valley in India's area of the Himalayas.

The event Sunday destroyed and swept away a small hydroelectric plant and damaged a bigger one further downstream.

Most of the missing were workers at the two construction sites about 500 kilometers north of India's capital New Delhi. Many are feared dead, Reuters, the BBC and others said Monday.

The glacier burst a dam causing flooding and forcing residents of villages downstream to flee.

The neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh is on flood alert.

Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said 125 people were missing but the number could increase. So far, rescuers have recovered seven bodies.

More than 2,000 police, military and paramilitary groups joined the search and rescue operation, authorities said.

"My prayers are with every missing worker," Rawat said on Twitter. The primary objective was to find those trapped in underground tunnels, Rawat said without elaborating.

"I witnessed something that looked like a scene from a Bollywood film. I have never seen anything like what I saw at the Rishiganga plant...around 50 to 100 people were running for their lives but couldn't be saved and they were engulfed by the river," one resident was quoted by Reuters as saying.

It wasn't immediately known what triggered the glacier to break. One possibility is that ice blocks broke off as a result of a rise in temperature, generating floods, geologists said.