8 children among 9 killed as rain triggers landslide in Manipur
Eight children are among nine people who were killed in landslide caused by heavy rain in Manipur’s Tamenglong district in the early hours of Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner Ravinder Singh said.
The bodies of two children are yet to be recovered.
The landslide took place between 2-3 am on Wednesday at three different places of Tamenglong district headquarter, about 150 km west of Imphal.
Tamenglong district borders Assam’s North Cachar hill district and Nagaland’s Peren district.
“The unfortunate incident happened after heavy rain in the area which lasted for 3-4 hours,” said Deputy Commissioner Ravinder Singh on phone . “Now we’re trying to find the bodies of the two missing children.”
The eight children are aged up to 18 years.
One of the dead is the mother of a child victim.
They belong to three families of New Salem under ward number 4, Neigailong under ward number 2 and Ramgailong under ward number 3, all located in the adjoining areas of the hill town, police sources said. All the victim families were asleep when the incident took place.
Two daughters and three sons of Gaithuanang Riamei (44) of New Salem area lost their lives in the incident. The mother-son duo were killed when their house at Neigalong area was swept away by the landslide. The dead woman has been identified as Meijinglakliu Pamei (33).
A baby boy and 3 year-old daughter of Lanthailung Kamei (40) have also been washed away at Ramgailong area and their bodies are still to be recovered.
Chief minister N Biren assured an ex gratia of ₹5 lakh each for those who lost their lives in the tragic incident while the district administration of Tamenglong opened a relief control room at the DC office “to give assistance to the victims and monitor the situation.”
A ministerial team led by consumer affairs minister K Shyam and education minister Th Radheshyam, along with local MLA Samuel Jendai, rushed to the Tamenglong town and distributed relief materials.
In August 2015, twenty people of Joumol in Chandel district died in a massive landslide.
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