At least 13 people have died and dozens more are trapped under debris after a landslide in a Himalayan district in northern India.
Falling boulders swept a truck, a bus and other vehicles from a stretch of highway in Himachal Pradesh state.
Rescue operations are being hampered by rocks that are continuing to fall, officials say.
Several deadly landslides have hit India in recent months during an unusually heavy monsoon season.
Wednesday’s landslide occurred on a highway in Kinnaur district. Rescuers rummaged through sludge and debris late into the night to reach trapped victims.
More than 200 members of the military, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and border police were taking part in the rescue efforts, authorities said.
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) deputy commandment Dharminder Thakur told BBC Hindi that “13 people have been rescued so far and about 25-30 are still missing”.
“We were informed that about four to six vehicles were trapped. By 21:30 [or 1600G on Wednesday], we managed to clear most of the debris but were unable to locate one of the buses,” he added.
Rescuers scoured the debris under bright halogen lights for hours but found nothing, Mr Thakur said. A few remains of the vehicle – a tyre and some broken parts – were finally found on Thursday morning along with three bodies, the official added.
But the remaining passengers – about 20 of them – were still missing. “The problem is we are unable to reach the exact spot where we think the bus was crushed. The boulders are continuing to fall and it’s too risky to go near it,” Mr Thakur said.
The incident has once again put the spotlight on the impact of global warming on the fragile Himalayan ecosystem.
Nine people were killed last month in Himachal Pradesh when falling rocks hit their vehicle.
At least 136 people died in landslides in the western state of Maharashtra recently after heavy rains flooded hundreds of villages and swept away homes.
Scientists have linked the rising number of landslides and their increased frequency to the retreat of glaciers that are melting due to rising temperatures. They say development projects in the environmentally sensitive region have potentially made things worse.
On Thursday, families in Kinnaur anxiously waited to hear from their loved ones.
Hansraj, 22, said he had been trying to contact his grandmother, one of the passengers in the bus, since Wednesday afternoon. “I last spoke to her before she boarded the bus. When our family heard about the accident, we tried calling her many times. But her phone is switched off.”
He said he arrived at the accident site early Thursday morning, but there has been no news of his grandmother. “I’ve been waiting for hours. I can’t really describe how I feel.”