Tourists told to stay away from Indian city of Shimla due to water crisis

Residents use social media to beg holidaymakers to avoid area as supply runs dry

Residents of the picturesque Indian hill station Shimla are begging tourists to stay away amid a severe drinking water shortage that is being compared to Cape Town's water crisis.

The Himalayan city was the former summer capital of the British Raj and continues to be popular with Indians fleeing scorching summers on the Gangetic plain. Water supplies have been critically low for at least the past three years but ran out completely on 20 May.