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Days of
torrential rains have forced more than 300,000 people from their
homes across the South Asian island nation, official data
showed. Eighteen bodies have been retrieved at the landslide
sites.
That figure is likely to rise sharply, as authorities battling
muddy conditions began to give up hope of reaching 134 people
believed to be trapped under rubble at one site, and 16 at
another, before time ran out.
"I don't think there will be any survivors," Major General
Sudantha Ranasinghe, the officer in charge of the rescue
operation, told Reuters.
"There are places where the mud level is up to 30 feet. We will
do our best. We will keep going until we can recover the
maximum."
Rescue efforts have focused on the town of Aranayaka, 100 km (60
miles) northeast of the capital, Colombo, where three villages
were buried late on Tuesday in the central district of Kegalle.
Military officials used hoes and shovels to shift mud as they
scrambled in the hilly terrain to find survivors amid heavy rain
that made walking difficult.
Material from destroyed homes littered the area, where dog
cages, water tanks, and a three-wheeler were swathed in mud.
The military pulled three bodies from rubble at the site of the
second landslide that buried 16 people, Ranasinghe said.
Aid agencies in Colombo canvassed for boats to rescue hundreds
of people trapped by rising waters near the banks of rivers.
Disaster management authorities said the 300,000 people
displaced across the country by the disaster had been sent to
610 safe locations.
Troops used boats and helicopters in rescue operations
elsewhere, as the torrential rains since Sunday have caused
floods and landslides in nineteen of the country's 25 districts.
Flooding and drought are cyclical in Sri Lanka, which is
battered by a southern monsoon between May and September, while
a northeastern monsoon runs from December to February.
(Writing by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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