Sri Lankan Flood Kills 31 People, 14 People Missing Due To Landslides

UNSPLASH/Sadiq Nafee ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Sri Lanka has stopped passenger train services and closed roads in some areas of the country, where landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains have killed more than 30 people.

The government's disaster management center said 18 of the reported deaths occurred in the mountainous areas of tea-producing Badulla and Nuwara Eliya in the country's central province, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of the capital Colombo.

A total of 14 other people disappeared on Thursday, November 27, due to landslides in the same area.

The death toll has risen to 31 since last week, when Sri Lanka began grappling with bad weather. Heavy rains over the weekend resulted in damage by flooding houses, fields, and roads.

Many reservoirs and rivers overflowed, causing roads to cut off access. Several main roads connecting the two provinces have been closed.

As reported by ABC News, authorities stopped trains in some areas in mountainous areas after rock, mud, and trees fell onto the tracks, and local television showed workers busy cleaning debris. In some areas, flooding has inundated rails.

Local television broadcasts a naval vehicle carrying residents and a car that was swept away by floods near the city of Ampara, about 412 kilometers east of Colombo.

The bad weather has had an impact on about 4,000 families.