Badulla, Sri Lanka (BBN)-At least 10 people are dead and hundreds are missing following a landslide in central Sri Lanka, disaster officials tell the BBC.
The landslide, which came after heavy monsoon rains, engulfed about 140 houses in Badulla district, officials said.
Security forces have been mobilised in search and rescue operations, reports BB.
Mudslide warnings were issued after much of Sri Lanka was lashed by heavy rain in the past few weeks.
The mudslide hit the Meeriyabedda tea plantation near the town of Haldummulla, about 200 km (120 miles) east of the capital Colombo, on Wednesday at 07:30 local time (02:30 GMT).
Ten people have been confirmed dead and more than 300 are missing, Disaster Management Centre spokesman Sarath Kumara told the BBC.
‘THIRTY FEET OF MUD’
The weather has now cleared and army, air force and police personnel are searching for survivors, the BBC’s South Asia correspondent Sanjoy Majumder reports.
However, military officials say rescue efforts are being hampered by fog in the area.
“Some houses have been buried in 30 ft (9m) of mud,” Major General Mano Perera, the top military official in the area, said in quotes carried by AFP news agency.
Officials say an area of about two kilometres (one mile) has been affected by the landslide, Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror reports.
Sections of several national highways have been washed away by the rains, reports say.
One woman who survived told local media: “I was under the rubble and some people took me out… my mother and aunt have died.”
In June, monsoon rains triggered landslides in Sri Lanka that killed at least 22 people and forced thousands from their homes.
Monsoon rains are caused by winds in the Indian Ocean and south Asia. They bring about wet and dry seasons in much of the region, and have a large impact on local ecosystems.
BBN/AS-29Oct14-4:00pm (BST)
