Landslides in India triggered by pounding monsoon rains have killed at least 63 people with hundreds more feared trapped under mud and debris, officials said yesterday.
The southern coastal state of Kerala has been battered by torrential downpours, and the collapse of a key bridge at the disaster site in Wayanad district has hampered rescue efforts, local media reported.
The landslides killed at least 63 people, while another 116 people had been injured, the office of Kerala Minister for Revenue and Housing K. Rajan told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
Kerala Minister for Health and Woman and Child Development Veena George told the Press Trust of India news agency that “many” others had been injured and were being treated in hospital. Images published by the National Disaster Response Force showed rescue crews trudging through mud to search for survivors and carring bodies on stretchers out of the area.
Homes were caked with brown sludge as the force of the landslide’s impact scattered vehicles, corrugated iron and other debris around the disaster site.
The Indian Army said that it had deployed more than 200 soldiers to the area to assist state security forces and fire crews in search and rescue efforts.
“Hundreds of people are suspected to have been trapped,” the army said in a statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had assured the Kerala government of “all possible help” with the situation.
“My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones and prayers with those injured,” he wrote on X.
His office said that families of victims would be given a compensation payment of 200,000 rupees (US$2,388).
More rainfall and strong winds were forecast in Kerala yesterday, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority said.
Indian Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who until recently represented Wayanad in parliament, said he was “deeply anguished” by the disaster.
“I hope those still trapped are brought to safety soon,” he said.
Several people injured in the landslides were taken to a hospital in the district for treatment.
Monsoon rains across the region from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies. They are vital for agriculture and therefore the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security for South Asia’s nearly 2 billion people, but they also bring destruction in the form of landslides and floods.
The number of fatal floods and landslides has increased in the past few years, and experts say climate change is exacerbating the problem.
Damming, deforestation and development projects in India have also exacerbated the human toll.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS