Water wars in India's Shimla as taps run dry

Indian police were forced to escort water tankers through the streets of Shimla yesterday as an unprecedented shortage sparked brawls and desperation in the Himalayan hotspot popular with the rich and famous.

The mountain getaway is generally crowded with vacationers but hotels are closing and tourists being told to stay away as a crippling water shortage pinches the picturesque retreat.

Anxious residents have been waiting for hours in queues hundreds deep to collect water, filling buckets at tankers guarded by police.

"We all know for the past fortnight the situation is so bad that people are getting water barely once in a week," Sanjay Chauhan, a former mayor of Shimla, told AFP.

Shimla, the erstwhile summer capital of British India, requires around 42 million litres per day but often suffers water shortages in the summer.