SRI LANKA 300 missing in mudslides

SRI LANKA 300 missing in mudslides COLOMBO: Mudslides triggered by mon "The latest we have got is that atleast300 soon rains swept through a tea-growing people may be missing," the official said, region of Sri Lanka yesterday, killing at least updating an earlier estimate of 200. 16 people and leaving around 300 more Kumar said 16 bodies had been recov ered by noon after the disaster in the feared missing, disaster officials said. 200km of The landslides hit a well-known tea Koslanda region, around east plantation east of Colombo in the morn the capital of mud, The victims were tea plantation work ing, with some homes buried in ers and their families, whose homes were officials said. mountain slope that came Soldiers were trying to dig through located on a debris for survivors, but rescue efforts were crashing down in the area, hampered by damage to roads in the area The military official said about20 top which blocked earth-moving and other Major General Mano Perera, the rescue units have been d for heavy equipment from arriving. in unstable mountainous We have reports of 140 houses getting operation an ham- area. But he said efforts were being washed away in the mudslides," Sarath visibility, with the area Kumara, a spokesman for the national pered by poor AFP Disaster Management Centre, said shrouded in mist.