Himalayan glacier breaks in Uttarakhand, India, leaving up to 150 feared dead in floods

As many as 150 people were feared dead in northern India after a Himalayan glacier broke and swept away a hydroelectric dam, with floods forcing the evacuation of villages downstream.

Key points:

• People living on the banks of the Alaknanda River have been advised to move to safer places immediately
• Uttarakhand is prone to flash floods and landslides
• In 2013, about 6,000 people in Uttarakhand died in devastating floods

A portion of Nanda Devi glacier broke off in the northern state of Uttarakhand on Sunday morning, damaging the Rishiganga and Dhauliganga hydropower projects, a spokesman for paramilitary Indo Tibetan Border Police said.

He said at least 150 people were working at the two power plants and their fate was unknown.

Three bodies have been recovered near a tunnel of the Dhauliganga project, where at least 16 workers remained trapped.

Houses were also damaged in the flooding.

Officials said when the glacier broke, it sent water trapped behind it as well as mud and other debris surging down the mountain and into other bodies of water.

An advisory was issued urging people living on the banks of the Alaknanda River to move to safer places immediately.

Several teams of rescuers were rushed to the affected area, officials said.

Army using helicopters in rescue efforts

A witness reported a wall of dust, rock and water as an avalanche roared down the Dhauli Ganga river valley.

"It came very fast, there was no time to alert anyone," Sanjay Singh Rana, who lives on the upper reaches of the river in Raini village told Reuters by phone.

"I felt that even we would be swept away."

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Om Prakash, chief secretary of Uttarakhand, said 100 to 150 people were feared dead but the actual number had not yet been confirmed.

India's air force was being readied to help with rescue operations while disaster-response teams were airlifted in to help with relief and rescue.

Army soldiers have already been deployed and helicopters were doing reconnaissance.

"India stands with Uttarakhand and the nation prays for everyone's safety there," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.

Construction in sensitive Himalayan area criticised

The Himalayan area has a chain of power projects on the Alaknanda River and its tributaries.

Uttarakhand is prone to flash floods and landslides and the latest disaster prompted calls by environment groups for a review of power projects in the ecologically sensitive mountains.

The neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous, put its riverside areas on high alert.

It was not immediately clear what had set off the avalanche at a time when it is not the flood season.

In June 2013, record monsoon rains in Uttarakhand caused devastating floods that claimed close to 6,000 lives.

That disaster was dubbed the "Himalayan tsunami" because of the torrents of water unleashed in the mountainous area, which sent mud and rocks crashing down, burying homes, sweeping away buildings, roads and bridges.

Uma Bharti, India's former water resources minister and a senior leader of Mr Modi's party, criticised the construction of a power project in the area.

"When I was a minister, I had requested that Himalaya is a very sensitive place, so power projects should not be built on Ganga and its main tributaries," she said on Twitter, referring to the main river that flows from the mountain.

ABC/Wires