Update | ‘No hope for survivors’ as Sri Lanka landslide claims 100
Hopes of finding survivors under the mud and rubble of a landslide in south-central Sri Lanka had run out by first light on Thursday, though a government minister cut the estimated death toll to more than 100 from 300 the previous night.
Hopes of finding survivors under the mud and rubble of a landslide in south-central Sri Lanka had run out by first light on Thursday, though a government minister cut the estimated death toll to more than 100 from 300 the previous night.
“I don’t think there could be any survivors,” Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told Reuters, after visiting the disaster site in the tea-plantation village of Haldummulla, 190km from the capital, Colombo.
Watch: At least 100 buried alive in Sri Lanka mudslide, says official
“It is about 100 people who have been buried as there were some children and some estate workers who were not at their houses at the time of the disaster,” he added, explaining why the death toll could be lower than feared the day before.
The Disaster Management Centre revised down its estimate for the number of people missing in Wednesday’s disaster to 192 from 300. Amaraweera said it was difficult to be sure of the number because population data was lost in the landslip.