Media in India say that more than 20 students are feared dead in Himachal Pradesh state due to the “appalling negligence” of authorities at a hydropower dam.

A group of 24 students was on a holiday in the Himalayan state when they were swept away by a sudden surge of water released from the upstream dam.

The students, who were on a college trip, had reportedly left a bus to take photographs when the surge occurred. Rescue workers have found the bodies of five students and are searching for 19 others missing, officials said.

Papers have criticised the “appalling absence” of a proper warning system to stop the students from going close to the river before water was released from the dam.

“A tragedy beyond words,” reads the headline of the Asian Age’s editorial.

“The flow of water may be a force of nature, but this calamity appears man-made as the water stored in the reservoir of the Larji hydropower project was released without, as some survivors said, so much as a warning being given to areas downstream of the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh,” it says.

The paper further adds that “this is a man-made tragedy typical of a land that does not place sufficient value on life, maybe because the humongous numbers here make it appear so cheap”.

“Death by neglect,” is the headline of The Tribune’s edit on the tragedy.

“An investigation is now on to find out whether due process to warn people downstream was followed before the water was released. The fact is that whatever was done was not enough,” says the paper.

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