THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India: At least 25 people have died in landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains in southwestern India, officials said Sunday, as rescuers scoured for survivors in muddy debris and the military flew in emergency supplies.
Residents were cut off in parts of the coastal state of Kerala as the rains, which started to intensify from late Friday, swelled rivers and flooded roads.
Some 11 bodies have been found so far in Idukki district and another 14 in Kottayam district, officials told AFP, after the areas were hit by landslides and flash floods.
Thousands of people have been evacuated and at least 100 relief camps have been set up, Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Sunday.
The army, navy and airforce are assisting with flood relief and rescue operations. Officials could not say how many people were missing.
“It was my livelihood. Everything is gone,” a distraught man told Kerala news channel Manorama TV in Koottickal town in Kottayam, which was hit by a landslide.
“The hill broke off near us. There has been a lot of damage and loss. The house has gone. Children have gone,” a woman from Koottickal added.
Video shared on social media showed buses and cars submerged in floodwaters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences and said authorities were working to help those who were affected or hit by the deluge.
The India Meteorological Department said the heavy rains, caused by a low pressure area over the southeastern Arabian Sea and Kerala, were expected to ease on Monday.
In northern India, some states including the Himalayan regions of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are forecast to experience “heavy to very heavy rainfall” in the next two to three days, the weather bureau said.
The northern weather system would be caused by a low pressure area over Afghanistan and its surroundings interacting with strong winds from the Bay of Bengal, it added.
In 2018, nearly 500 people were killed in Kerala when it was ravaged by the worst floods to hit the state in almost a century.
Landslides, floods kill at least 25 in southwest India
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Landslides, floods kill at least 25 in southwest India
Two Turkish tourists killed in Ethiopia
- Southwestern Ethiopia is home to semi-nomadic herders, notably from the Suri and Surma tribes, who are often armed to defend their herds
ADDIS ABABA: Two Turkish tourists and their Ethiopian driver have been killed by armed herders in southwestern Ethiopia, regional authorities said late on Monday, describing the attack as a “heinous act.”
The attack took place in the Suri district, about 330 km southwest of the capital Addis Ababa, and was carried out by “pastoralist bandits” on Monday morning, authorities in the Southwest region said on Facebook.
They did not give further details of the circumstances.
Southwestern Ethiopia is home to semi-nomadic herders, notably from the Suri and Surma tribes, who are often armed to defend their herds.
Regional authorities said they were conducting a “major law enforcement operation” to “pursue and bring to justice the bandits who committed this heinous act.”
Ethiopia, which emerged in 2022 from a bloody civil war in the northern Tigray region, is seeking to attract international tourists as it looks to diversify its largely state-led economy.
The Horn of Africa nation — the second most populous on the continent with around 130 million people — continues to face armed conflicts in its two most populous regions, Oromia and Amhara.
