COLOMBO: Mudslides triggered by monsoon rains swept through a tea-growing p region of Sri Lanka yesterday, killing at least u 16 people and leaving around 300 more feared missing, disaster officials said. The landslides hit a well-known tea I plantation east of Colombo in the morning, with some homes buried in 9m ofmud, officials said. Soldiers were trying to dig through debris for survivors, but rescue efforts were hampered by damage to roads in the area which blocked earth-moving and other heavy equipment from arriving. "We have reports of 140 houses getting washed away in the mudslides," Sarath Kamara, a spokesman for the national Disaster Management Centre, said.