19 dead, 50 missing after landslide in India
Rescuers found more bodies Friday as they resumed searching for dozens of missing after a mudslide triggered by weeks of heavy downpours killed at least 19 people at a railroad construction site in India’s northeast, officials said.
Soldiers joined more than 200 workers and police using bulldozers and other equipment to rescue those buried under the debris in Noney, a town near Imphal, the capital of Manipur state. But the rough terrain was making it difficult to move heavy equipment, said H. Guite, district magistrate, adding that he has asked for reinforcements.
Intermittent rain continued in the region where 19 bodies have been recovered so far after a hillock caved in and buried the railroad project area, Guite said.
Lt. Gen. R.P. Kalita, head of the army’s eastern command, visited the site. He said 13 soldiers and five civilians have been rescued from the debris of the railroad station, staff residential quarters and other infrastructure that was being built.
Eighteen people with injuries have been hospitalized, said Guite. He put the number of those still unaccounted for at around 50 since the slide early Thursday.
Ten of the confirmed dead were members of the Territorial Army. Because of a decadesold insurgency seeking a separate homeland for ethnic and tribal groups in the area, army personnel had been providing security for the railway officials.
Continuous rainfall over the past three weeks has wreaked havoc across India’s northeast and in neighboring Bangladesh.
An estimated 200 people have been killed in heavy downpours and mudslides in states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim, while 42 people have died in Bangladesh since May 17. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.