Mfat trying to contact Kiwi in flood zone

Efforts to contact a New Zealander known to be in India's remote Himalayan region of Ladakh hit by flash floods are continuing today.

A cloudburst on Friday caused devastating floods that swept away roads, buildings, bridges and power cables in a tide of rock and mud, killing more than 130 people, and rescuers fear many more victims have died after being buried.

Thousands of residents in Leh, the main town of Ladakh in the Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir, have abandoned houses hit by the mud flows and moved to higher ground where they slept in the open despite the cold.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) spokesman said today it had been reported a New Zealander was in the area by the Israeli embassy. He was reportedly "fine".

MFAT had not yet confirmed who the man is or what he was doing in the region, although it was likely he was a tourist.

MFAT are trying to contact the man directly with the help of other embassies, such as the US, Israel and Australia, in the area to confirm he was safe.

"It's really difficult to do that because the telecommunications are very sporadic," the spokesman said.

Communication links with the area remained patchy, and Leh was without mains electricity.

Kashmir's tourism chief Farooq Shah told AFP there were no reports of any foreign casualties.

"There is no death of foreigners in Leh town, but we are trying our best to collect information about tourists who had gone out to villages and up into the mountains," Shah said.

Six planes carrying military emergency teams arrived at the damaged Leh airport on Saturday, along with specialist medical units and five tonnes of medicine flown in from the national capital New Delhi.

Ladakh is a highly militarised area because of sensitive border disputes with both Pakistan and China. Nevertheless, its mountains and rivers attract international adventure tourists.

The weather in Leh on Sunday was cloudy but with no further rain.

The floods came as neighbouring Pakistan suffered the worst flooding in its history with 15 million people affected and at least 1600 people killed.

- NZPA