GUWAHATI (India) • The search was on yesterday for some 20 villagers feared dead in a landslide triggered by heavy rain in north-eastern India, a local official said.
The side of a hill collapsed last Saturday on a village in Manipur state, near the border with Myanmar, said magistrate Memi Mary.
"We have reports of 20 killed when a hillock caved and trapped villagers," the magistrate told Agence France-Presse from Chandel town.
Rescuers arrived at the village in Chandel district after blocked roads hampered efforts to reach the site, located about 80km from the state capital of Imphal.
Photos showed a bridge washed away by floodwaters in Manipur, while TV stations aired footage of a house collapsing and families sleeping in evacuation centres.
The federal government ordered rescue and relief teams to be sent to Manipur, even as the annual monsoon wrought havoc in the region.
In the western state of Gujarat, the death toll after days of flooding caused by heavy rain has reached 53 - the result of drowning, electrocution and other incidents.
More than 10,000 people have been evacuated across Gujarat in the past week.
However, officials said waters were receding, allowing power and communications to be restored.
"The death toll has reached 53 since July 26, with 23 deaths in the worst-affected Banaskantha district alone," said an official in the state's emergency control room.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
