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Rescuers worked in rain on Thursday to dig through a remote village in western India where at least 21 people died as a landslide swept away scores of houses, possibly trapping many more people under debris, officials said.
They had already worked through the night using floodlights mounted on jeeps and earthmoving vehicles to pull seven injured people out of the mud and twisted wreckage, Vitthal Banot, a disaster management official, said on Thursday. They were taken to a nearby government-run hospital, but their injuries were not life threatening.
But continuing rains and bad roads were hampering rescue efforts in Ambegaon, a village in Pune district in Maharashtra state, said Alok Avasthy, a National Disaster Response Force commander.
Banot said 21 bodies – 11 men and 10 women – had been recovered from beneath mud, rocks, trees and other debris.

“Everything on the mountain came down,” said Suresh Jadhav, a district official, describing how a cascade of mud, rocks and uprooted trees swamped the area.
But with 70 homes buried and reports of another 158 hit by the landslide, rescuers anticipated more dead in the village, home to 704 people in the foothills of the Sahyadri Mountains.
Large crowd of people from nearby villages reached the spot and helped rescue workers in moving fallen trees and rocks with bare hands, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
The landslide hit on Wednesday morning, but details of the damage only began to trickle out several hours later. The area received 10.8 centimeters of rain on Tuesday, with a heavy downpour continuing through Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned the loss of lives and said all possible efforts must be made to help the victims, according to a statement from his office. He sent Home Minister Rajnath Singh to the disaster area.
About 250 disaster response personnel were in the area assisting local police and medical teams who began clearing the debris. At least 100 ambulances were also sent to the area, Jadhav said.
Large crowds of people from nearby villages were helping rescue workers move fallen trees and rocks with their bare hands, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
“It is a small village and this happened very suddenly,” local legislator Dilip Walse Patil told CNN-IBN TV network. One local commissioner, Prabhakar Deshmukh, said earlier that more than 150 people could be trapped.

Landslides are common in the area during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September.
Pune district is about 150 kilometres southeast of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital. The nearest medical centre is about 15 kilometres from the village.
The area around the village has been deforested extensively, increasing its vulnerability to landslides.
Similar deforestation and environmental damage have caused floods and landslides in other parts of India.
On Thursday, heavy rains hit a remote mountainous village in a northern India and six members of a family were feared dead, said police officer Pravin Tamta.
Police have recovered two bodies and were searching for four others in Tehri district in the hilly Uttarakhand state, Tamta said. The village is 300 kilometres north of New Delhi.
Last year, more than 6,000 people were killed as floods and landslides swept through Uttarakhand state during the monsoon season.
 


21 dead, scores trapped, after landslide sweeps through village in western India

A landslide surrounds a building in Malin village in Pune district, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Photo: AFP

Floods, landslides displace 1 million in India; 33 dead

A family move their belongings to a safe place in the flood affected Lasibishnupur village in Kamrup Rural district of Assam state, on Saturday. Photo: EPA

Rescue work takes place following landslides caused by flash floods on the Mongon–Chungthang road, some 30 kms north of the Gangtok, capital of Sikkim on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Indian Army personnel rescue villagers at the flood-affected area in Dholla village, Tinsukia district, some 575 kms from Guwahati, Assam, on Sunday. Photo: AFP

News

Asia

Twenty one confirmed killed under mud after part of hill collapses on homes as residents slept, following days of heavy rains in Maharashra state


A major landslide yesterday struck a village in western India following heavy monsoon rains, killing at least 21 people and leaving up scores feared trapped, officials said.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Twenty one confirmed killed under mud after part of hill collapses on homes as residents slept, following days of heavy rains in Maharashra state

Twenty one confirmed killed under mud after part of hill collapses on homes as residents slept, following days of heavy rains in Maharashra state