(COLOMBO) – One person was killed and two others sustained life-threatening injuries on Saturday after they were buried under a wall of mud in the Southern Sri Lankan town of Karapitiya some 145 kilometres away from the commercial capital of Colombo, police and rescue workers said.
They said the victims were part of a construction team close to the Karapitiya Government Hospital.
The mudslide came crashing down on the unsuspecting workers shortly after day break, the officials said.
They added that consistent rains in the region had apparently loosened the soil in the area where the men were working triggering it to collapse.
Volunteers and members of the police and security forces took several hours to reach the trapped men.
Wet weather has been experienced throughout most parts of the tiny island-nation for the past several days prompting the authorities to caution the public against landslides that could occur without a warning.
There have been numerous reports of such landslides that have blocked trains and vehicular traffic and in some instance damaged houses over the past several days but there has been no loss of life.
According to a senior official with the Department of Meteorology wet weather along with choppy seas have been predicted in the country and the seas around it for the next several days and perhaps it could even stretch on to the oncoming festive season.
He blamed the sudden twist in the weather pattern on to climate change and a depression in the Bay of Bengal.
