Shimla: Rains lashed parts of Himachal Pradesh for the third consecutive day today as the southwest monsoon advanced into more areas of the state.
About 400 tourists, who were stranded on a stretch of the Manali Leh national highway, blocked due to landslides and inundated by rainwater, were rescued after 15 hours of hectic efforts.
The Border Road Organisation teams cleared the blockage.
More than 200 vehicles stranded on both sides of the highway left for their destination around 11 am.
The tourists spent the night in their vehicles in the biting cold.
Meanwhile, rains continued to pound parts of the state, which witnessed a series of landslides over the last week.
Naina Davi gauged 81 mm of rainfall, Nahan 37 mm, Bijahi 35 mm, Shimla 25 mm, Kandaghat 18 mm, Jubbar Hatti 16 mm, Solan 14 mm, Kumarsen 13 mm, Paonta Sahib and Sarahan 7 mm each and Dharampur 5 mm.
The MeT office has predicted moderate to heavy rains and thundershowers in the mid and lower hills and snow and rain in the higher reaches over the next six days, up to July 8.
Barring Sundernagar and Kangra, which recorded a marginal increase in the temperature, the mercury dropped by 2 to 3 degrees across the state. Una was the hottest plcae in the state at 33.8 degrees Celsius.
—PTI