Rescuers continue search as deaths rise to 166 in landslides in southern India
More than a thousand rescue workers searched through mud and debris after multiple landslides set off by torrential rains killed at least 166 people in India.
NEW DELHI — More than a thousand rescue workers searched through mud and debris for a second day Wednesday after multiple landslides set off by torrential rains killed at least 166 people in southern India, police said.
Torrents of mud and water had swept through tea estates and villages and rescuers were pulling out people stuck under mud and debris as light to heavy rain hampered their efforts.
“This is one of the worst natural calamities Kerala state has ever witnessed,” said the state’s top elected official, Pinarayi Vijayan.
The landslides that hit hilly areas in Wayanad district early on Tuesday also injured 186 people, flattened houses, uprooted trees and destroyed bridges, said police officer Aijaz, who uses one name.
P.M. Manoj, a spokesman for the state’s top elected official, said 187 people were unaccounted for. Seventy-seven bodies have been identified so far and most of them were handed over to relatives, he added.
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