NEWS- Indian authorities have confirmed that at killing at least 106 people have been killed while they slept after unexpected heavy rain triggered torrents of mud, water and tumbling boulders in Southern India’s Kerala Province.
Its reported that the hillsides gave way after midnight following torrential rainfall on Monday night in the Wayanad District of Kerala State a state known as one of India’s most popular tourist destinations.
Most of the victims were tea estate workers and their families who lived in small houses or makeshift Houses and TV images showed rescue workers scrambling through uprooted trees and flattened tin structures as boulders lay strewn across the hillsides and muddy water gushed through.
Rescuers were being pulled across a stream, carrying stretchers and other equipment to rescue people, and by yesterday evening at least 106 people were killed in the landslides, 128 injured and dozens unaccounted for.
Some other sources put the total death at 119 and the landslides are the worst disaster in the state since 2018 when heavy floods killed almost 400 people.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters today morning that there are still people who are trapped under the ground and those who have been swept away and the rescue operation will continue with all possible strength and means.
He also said that more than 3,000 people had been moved out of the area and accommodated in 45 relief camps in the district and hundreds of personnel, including army soldiers, using drones and sniffer dogs were searching for survivors.
A survivor only identified as Vijayan said he woke up in the middle of the night to feel the ground shake and see electric poles fall and together with a couple of neighbours ran to nearby houses where we heard cries for help and took some of the injured to safety.
Army Engineers were deployed to help build a replacement bridge after the one that linked the affected area to the nearest town of Chooralmala was destroyed.
Officials said that a military helicopter managed to land at Mundakkai, one of the worst hit areas where about 250 people were stranded on a hilltop and at a tourist resort without enough food and medicine as these places could not be accessed by air earlier due to bad weather and these are expected to speed up rescue efforts and the injured would be evacuated first.
Although the area is a well-known tourist destination, local residents were the most affected as all tourist excursions had been halted since Monday due to the rain.
Chief Minister Vijayan said that many people had been moved out of the area before the landslides due to the heavy rain and this had helped reduce the toll and rainfall and other natural disasters are sometimes unpredictable and said that more rains were forecast across the state for the next five days and urged people to take precautions.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who won a seat in Wayanad in the recent general election, but resigned as he was also elected in his family bastion in the north, said he had spoken to the state chief minister to ensure coordination with all agencies.
Additional Reporting from Reuters.
