GAUHATI, India –
Rescuers found five more bodies as they resumed cleanup operations after an overnight stop searching for dozens of people missing after a mudslide triggered by weeks of heavy downpours killed at least 19 people at a road construction site. railways in northeastern India, officials said on Friday.
The soldiers joined more than 200 disaster response workers and police officers who used land-clearing equipment such as bulldozers to rescue those buried under rubble in Noney, a town near Imphal, the capital of Manipur state. But the terrain makes it difficult to move heavy equipment, district judge H. Guite said, adding that he has called for backup.
Intermittent rain continues in the region where 19 bodies have been recovered so far after a mound collapsed and buried the area of the rail project, Guite told The Associated Press.
Lieutenant General RP Kalita, head of the army’s eastern command, visited the scene. He said 13 army soldiers and five civilians have been rescued from the rubble of the railway station, staff quarters and other infrastructure being built in the area, completely leveled.
The army has also set up a medical post at the site to help those who are still alive, Kalita said.
Eighteen people with injuries have been hospitalized, Guite said. He put the number of people still missing at around 50.
A flowing river has been blocked by debris, creating a dam-like structure in the area, he said. People living nearby have been asked to move to safe areas, according to media reports.
Ten of the confirmed dead were members of the Territorial Army. Due to a decades-long insurgency seeking a separate homeland for ethnic and tribal groups in the area, army personnel were there providing security for railway officials.
Most of those washed away by the mudslide were sleeping when it hit the area Thursday morning. Some survivors recalled being swept away by debris from the hill, The Times of India newspaper quoted Daichuipao, a resident, as saying.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has reviewed the situation with local authorities. “Secured all possible support from the Center (federal government),” he tweeted.
Continuous rains for the past three weeks have wreaked havoc in northeast India, which has eight states and 45 million people, and neighboring Bangladesh.
An estimated 200 people have been killed in heavy downpours and landslides in states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim, while 42 people have died in Bangladesh since May 17. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.
Scientists say climate change is a factor behind the erratic early rains that triggered the unprecedented flooding. Monsoon rains in South Asia usually start in June, but torrential rains hit northeastern India and Bangladesh as early as March this year.
With global temperatures rising due to climate change, experts say the monsoon season is becoming more variable, meaning much of the rain that would normally fall during the season comes in a shorter period.