New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS): The Indian Air Force saved 13 lives in two separate rescue missions carried out in flood-affected areas in Jammu and Haryana on Monday.

The missions were carried out in Jammu and Karnal in Haryana with active coordination of local administration of the districts.

In Jammu, the rescue mission to rescue four people stranded in the flooded Tawi river was undertaken by a team of Garud commandos led by Wing Commander Mukul Khare.

The team, which embarked on the mission with a Mi-17 helicopter, not only found it impossible to land at the site where the civilians had been stranded but also to lower a harness due to obstructions.

An IAF official said a commando was lowered from the helicopter to the site where he hooked the stranded civilians to a harness. They were lifted and dropped at a safer location near the banks of the Tawi river.

Earlier, on the intervening night of August 18 and 19, the IAF had rescued nine people stranded in the Yamuna river in Karnal district of Haryana upon getting an SOS call from the local administration.

The rescue operation was undertaken in low-light conditions with the help of an Mi-17 chopper.

The aircraft reached the rescue site and a thorough recce was conducted before lifting the survivors, who had been latching on to a broken hut in a flooded area, up to the helicopter. The survivors included three adults and six children.