Heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh claimed 16 lives, including four of a family, while hundreds of people were stranded across the state after incessant rains triggered landslides, snapping road links, officials said on Monday. A government notification advised people to avoid travel as the weather officials warned of heavy rains in the state till Tuesday and thereafter on August 16 and 17.

Four members of a family were killed in a landslide in Kandaghat subdivision. A boy was washed away in the Kaushalya river. A total of eight persons lost their lives in rain-related incidents in the district.