World

Flooding leaves 10 dead, six missing in Sri Lanka

By AAP Newswire

Jun 3, 2024

People wade through floodwaters in a suburb of Colombo — Flooding has wreaked havoc in many parts of Sri Lanka following a weekend of heavy rainfall. -AP

Ten people are dead and six others missing after heavy rain triggered floods and mudslides in Sri Lanka, officials say.

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Sri Lanka's education ministry has closed schools with their reopening to depend on how the weather develops.

Heavy downpours have wreaked havoc in many parts of the country since Sunday, flooding homes, fields and roads, and forcing authorities to cut electricity as a precaution.

Six people died after drowning in the capital, Colombo, and the remote Rathnapura district on Sunday, according to the disaster management centre.

Three others died when mounds of earth collapsed on their houses, and one person died when a tree fell on him. Six people have gone missing since Sunday.

By Monday, over 5000 people had been moved to evacuation centres and more than 400 homes had been damaged, the centre said in a statement.

Navy and army troops have been deployed to rescue victims and provide food and other essentials to those affected.

Sri Lanka has been grappling with severe weather conditions since mid-May caused by heavy monsoon rains.