Fresh rain and falling boulders have hampered rescuers who have so far pulled out 26 bodies from the debris of a landslide that wiped out a railway construction site in northeastern India’s Manipur state, reports Al Jazeera citing the officials concerned.
Rescue work is expected to continue for a couple of days in rugged hilly terrain in Noney, a town near state capital Imphal, with little hope of finding survivors among 37 people still missing since Wednesday night.
Pankaj Kavidayal, a rescue official, said 21 of the confirmed 26 dead were members of the Territorial Army.
Army personnel had been providing security for the railway officials because of a decades-old armed uprising seeking a separate homeland for ethnic and tribal groups in the area.
More than 250 soldiers, rescuers and police using bulldozers and other equipment were involved in the operation in Noney. They have been cautioned about more landslides reported in the region on Saturday.
Excavators were also used to search for bodies in a river.
Thirteen soldiers and five civilians have been rescued from the debris of the entirely swept away railway station, staff residential quarters and other infrastructure that was being built, Kavidayal said.
The situation at the scene of the landslide was “still serious” with rainfall and bad weather hampering rescue efforts, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said.
Continuous rainfall over the past three weeks has wreaked havoc across India’s northeast – eight states with a total population of 45 million – and neighbouring Bangladesh.
An estimated 200 people have been killed in heavy downpours and mudslides in states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim.
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