Rescuers search for 20 feared buried in India landslide

AFP, Guwahati, India: Rescuers were searching yesterday for 20 villagers feared killed in a landslide in remote northeast India, as the death toll from days of torrential rains elsewhere in the country rose, officials said. The side of a hill collapsed on Saturday on a village in Manipur state close to the border with Mynamar where monsoon downpours there have also triggered landslides and flooding. Local magistrate Memi Mary said a handful of rescuers reached the village by trekking on foot after blocked roads hampered efforts to reach the site, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Manipur capital Imphal. “So far we have reports of 20 people killed when a hillock caved and trapped the villagers,” the magistrate told AFP by telephone from the nearby town of Chandel. Photos showed a bridge washed away by floodwaters in Manipur, while TV stations showed footage of a house collapsing and families sleeping in make-shift evacuation centres.

Rescuers search for 20 feared buried in India landslide

AFP, Guwahati, India: Rescuers were searching yesterday for 20 villagers feared killed in a landslide in remote northeast India, as the death toll from days of torrential rains elsewhere in the country rose, officials said. The side of a hill collapsed on Saturday on a village in Manipur state close to the border with Mynamar where monsoon downpours there have also triggered landslides and flooding. Local magistrate Memi Mary said a handful of rescuers reached the village by trekking on foot after blocked roads hampered efforts to reach the site, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Manipur capital Imphal. So far we have reports of 20 people killed when a hillock caved and trapped the villagers, the magistrate told AFP by telephone from the nearby town of Chandel. Photos showed a bridge washed away by floodwaters in Manipur, while TV stations showed footage of a house collapsing and families sleeping in make-shift evacuation centres.