The deadly mudslide hit the Meeriyabedda tea plantation near the town of Haldummulla, about 200km (120 miles) east of the capital Colombo, on Wednesday (29th October) morning. Part of a mountainside crashed into the tea estate, burying some of the workers’ homes in 9m (30ft) of mud and debris.
An estimated 100 people are still listed as missing, the national Disaster Management Centre (DMC) says – locals say the figure is about 200. Hundreds of troops have been using heavy equipment to dig through tonnes of mud that buried the tin-roofed homes of workers at a tea plantation.
It is still not clear how many people are trapped in the disaster which was caused by heavy rain.
Editor of Maatram, Selvaraj Rajasegar, captured these compelling photos of the landslide’s aftermath. Access all the photos here.
