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Sunday, Jan 14, 2007
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Sri Lanka: 16 killed in landslips

B. Muralidhar Reddy

60,000 persons rendered homeless

COLOMBO: At least 16 persons were killed and an estimated 60,000 displaced in landslips caused by heavy rains in the central and southern regions of Sri Lanka in the last 24 hours.

According to the National Disaster Management Centre, the military has been called in to carry out relief operations.

"So far we have reports of at least 16 people who were killed due to floods and mudslips," said centre's spokesman G.M. Gunawardena on Saturday.

He said 61,281 persons were rendered homeless. Flooding in the south was compounded by irrigation reservoirs, which overflowed after the heavy rains.

Nuwara Eliya, a mountainous region in the central part of the country, was the worst hit with an estimated 9,000 persons homeless across 15 villages.

Rescue efforts

"Our forces have redoubled efforts and we have rescued dozens of people,'' said military spokesman, Prasad Samarasinghe. Brig. Samarasinghe said the army had deployed helicopters along with 100 soldiers to search for those feared trapped by the landslips.

At least 15 persons are reported missing.

Bad weather delayed relief and rescue efforts on Friday, but conditions improved on Saturday.

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