Rescuers found five more bodies in India’s western Maharashtra state on Friday, raising the death toll from a landslide triggered by torrential rains to at least 21, with many others feared trapped under debris, officials said.
A team of 60 rescuers and trained trekkers has been sent to rescue people trapped by the landslide, which occurred late on Wednesday night, the state's deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted.
Harsh weather has hampered rescue efforts and authorities have sent in medical teams to help the injured, he added.
While 75 people have been rescued, many others are still stuck, an official told the Press Trust of India news agency.
The landslide hit Irshalwadi village in the Raigad district and buried 17 of the 50 houses there.
Search operations were suspended on Thursday night due to heavy rainfall plus the threat of further landslides in the dark, the National Disaster Response Force said.
It said rescuers had resumed search operations on Friday and found five bodies, raising the confirmed death toll to 21. Nine members of one family were killed in the mudslide, The Indian Express reported.
Ten other rescued people have been taken to hospital, it said. It did not say how many people were feared trapped under the rubble.
The hilly terrain has made the task of rescuers difficult because heavy equipment to remove the rubble cannot be moved easily. From the base of the hill, it takes about 90 minutes to reach Irshalwadi due to a lack of paved roads.
India's weather department placed Maharashtra under alert as the state was lashed by incessant rains this week. The downpours have disrupted life for many in the state, including in the capital, Mumbai, where authorities shut schools on Thursday.
Local train service has been disrupted, with water flowing inside stations and over tracks, local media reported.
Record monsoon rains killed more than 100 people in northern India over the past two weeks, officials said, as the downpours caused roads to cave in and homes to collapse.
Monsoon rains across the country have already brought about 2 per cent more rainfall this year than normal, the weather agency said.
India regularly experiences severe floods during the monsoon season, which runs between June and September and brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall. The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season but often cause extensive damage.
Scientists say monsoons are becoming more erratic because of climate change, leading to frequent landslides and flash floods in India’s Himalayan north.
