With the recovery of three more bodies on Thursday from a hydro project site in Himachal Pradesh`s Kangra district that was hit by flash floods a day ago, the death toll has risen to five, officials said. Search operations have been intensified to find the six persons still missing since flash floods triggered by cloudbursts hit Kangra and Kullu districts on Wednesday. Two bodies were recovered on Wednesday.

The deceased have been identified as Chain Singh, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, Aditya Thakur from Chamba, Sanjay from Nurpur, and Pardeep Verma and Chandan from Uttar Pradesh, Kangra SP Shalini Agnihotri said on Thursday. Lovely from Chamba district, whom the search teams rescued from a forest near the project site, said there were 13 people in the camp, of which five ran towards the hills while the remaining were swept by the gushing waters.

"We saw the floods coming and screamed to alert the people below before running to safety," Daya Kishan, a labourer, said. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Commandant Baljinder Singh said they are trying to trace the people who are feared to have been swept away from the project site during the floods. Three more people are yet to be traced at Rehla Bihal in Kullu district.