Sri Lanka steps up search for landslide victims
Sri Lankan soldiers yesterday stepped up their search for 100 people feared buried alive in a landslide at a tea plantation, but there was little hope of finding any survivors.
Hundreds of troops using heavy diggers clawed through tonnes of mud that buried scores of tin-roofed homes at the picturesque plantation in the island's centre on Wednesday.
"Rains are slowing down our work," the region's top military officer, Major General Mano Perera, told reporters as he directed search operations.
"The area is flooded with muddy water, so we don't hold out much hope of finding survivors," Perera said, explaining that "there were no concrete structures which could have acted as air traps for victims to survive".
A government minister voiced fears that 100 people may have been buried, although officials said that so far only a handful of bodies have been found.
There had been fears of an even higher toll when officials initially said that up to 300 people were unaccounted for, but the minister said most of those who were classified as missing were later found at work.
President Mahinda Rajapakse visited the disaster area in Koslanda yesterday, speaking with survivors now sheltering at two schools. He later inspected the Meeriyabedda tea plantation which bore the full brunt of the mudslide.
At least 1,200 people from nearby tea plantations have also been evacuated from their homes amid fears that ongoing rains could lead to more mudslides, officials said.
Sri Lanka's picturesque hill region is famed for producing Ceylon tea and has become a major tourist attraction with visitors able to stay on the plantations.
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