Sri Lanka Mudslide: Tragic Stories Emerge

Homes are wiped out by a disaster at a tea plantation where scores of people including children lost their lives.

A hugely destructive mudslide at Sri Lanka’s Koslanda tea plantation is thought to have left no survivors.

There were widely conflicting reports about how many people had been buried alive under the rubble and mud, with initial estimates saying more than 250 people have died.

Government minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the number was about 100, adding: “I have visited the scene and from what I saw I don’t think there will be any survivors.”

However, villagers say the figure is likely to be higher.

A woman sit nexts to her baby in a displacement centre

The landslide was caused by heavy monsoon rains, which destroyed 120 workers’ homes at the tea plantation, located about 140 miles east of Colombo.

The plantation was one of many in the higher altitudes of the former Ceylon, one of the world’s leading producers of tea.

Scores of children who had left for school early in the morning returned to see their homes had vanished without a trace, along with their parents.

One woman, who gave her name as Saroja, said she had lost her only daughter in the mudslide when a boy asked her to leave the house after they all heard a loud noise.

"There was a loud noise, like a helicopter, and a boy asked my daughter to come and out and see (what was happening)," she said.

"Then soil came and buried them almost immediately. A woman saw the two children buried. We managed to remove them but I lost my only daughter."

A 48-year-old truck driver said he lost all five members of his household - his wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and his six-month-old grandchild.

"I left for work early morning and got a call asking me to rush back because there is an earth slip near my home," the man said.

"I came back and there is no trace of my home, everyone was buried."

The monsoon season in Sri Lanka runs from October through December.

Most of Sri Lanka has experienced heavy rain over the past few weeks, and the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) had issued warnings of mudslides and falling rocks.