Kolkata: At least 20 people, including several children, were killed as thunderstorms and torrential rain wreaked havoc in the Darjeeling and Mirik hills of West Bengal overnight, even as water gushed in from neighbouring Bhutan and Sikkim, and the overflowing Sankosh, Teesta, Torsa and other rivers flooded vast areas in the northern region of the state on Sunday.

Thousands of people in the North Bengal districts have been displaced by the deluge. Hundreds of tourists from the rest of West Bengal and other states, as well as from abroad, got stranded in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik, as landslides in at least seven locations disrupted transport between the hill stations and Siliguri in the foothills of the Himalayas. Thimphu has warned Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s governme

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