India on Thursday offered assistance to Sri Lanka to help hundreds of people affected by Wednesday's landslide in the central hills of tea plantations.
India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Y.K. Sinha, spoke to Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister Prof. G L Peiris and offered New Delhi's assistance to deal with the disaster.
The landslide has levelled Meeriya Badda village in Koslanda in the Haldummulla area of the country's Badulla District, burying about 70 houses, 10 shops and several government buildings.
Local media reports said 10 bodies have been recovered so far from the rubble. Another 150 people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble and hopes of finding them alive are fading.
The Sri Lankan Government has deployed 500 army troops from the Security Forces Headquarters - Central (SFHQ-C) and five heavy duty trench diggers to assist the rescue operations.
Together with the army soldiers, Sri Lanka Air Force troops, Policemen, health teams and civil relief teams are currently engaged in the rescue and rehabilitation efforts.
The rescue operations were temporarily halted yesterday night due to bad weather, darkness and possibly due to the expectation of more mud slips in the nearby hills.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe have unitedly expressed their sympathies to the landslide victims and bereaved families today.
Offering his "deep condolences' for the victims, President Rajapaksa said he has instructed officials to provide immediate relief to those affected by the landslide.
He said that he has ordered Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, the Chief Minister of Uva Province, Sashendra Rajapaksa, and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to take immediate and optimum necessary action to search and rescue the people and immediately provide all facilities required by the victims.
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe requested all Sri Lankans to come forward and help the landslide victims families and survivors if any.
Addressing a media briefing in Colombo, Wickremasinghe said that everybody should rally together to rescue the landslide victims irrespective of any differences.
"All should come together without any ethnic, religious or political barriers to do the best to our brothers and sisters in need. It is a responsibility of everyone to provide assistance to our own people who are in a helpless situation," he said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has also informed the government that it stands ready to extend support if required.
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told media in New York that," OCHA is in close contact with Sri Lanka's National Disaster Management Centre."
The Sri Lankan Red Cross Society has mobilized first aid teams, while the World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health efforts to assist the affected communities, he said.
According to the figures released by the Disaster Management Centre Thursday morning 330 people of 57 families are affected by the landslide while 192 people are listed as missing.
The death toll is from the disaster is expected to rise as authorities believe that chance of surviving the mud slide is slim.
