Kerala’s Wayanad landslide: Over 50 killed, many missing in tea plantation tragedy
KOCHI, India, July 30 (Reuters) – Landslides hit tea plantations and villages in southern India’s Kerala on Tuesday, killing at least 93 people, according to local media. Heavy rains caused hills to collapse and send down mud, water and rocks.
Hills collapsed just after midnight on Monday following torrential rains in Kerala’s Wayanad district, known as one of India’s most popular tourist destinations. Most of the victims were tea plantation workers and their families who were sleeping in temporary shelters.
Television images showed rescue workers wading through uprooted trees and flattened tin buildings, while hilly areas were strewn with boulders and muddy waters gushing through. Rescuers were seen carrying stretchers and other equipment to rescue people as they were pulled across a rivulet.
Images on TV showed a man trapped in chest-deep mud for hours, unable to free himself until he was rescued by emergency workers.
At least 93 people were killed in the landslide and 100 families remained stranded after the landslide, local Asianet TV reported.
State officials said around 350 families lived in the affected area, most of them in tea and cardamom plantations, and 250 people have been rescued so far.
Army engineers were deployed to help build a new bridge after the bridge connecting the affected area to the nearest town of Chormala was destroyed, the Chief Minister’s Office said in a statement.
