KOSLANDA, Sri Lanka — Hundreds of desperate Sri Lankan villagers dug with bare hands through the broken red earth of a deadly landslide Thursday, defying police orders after a top disaster official said there was no chance of finding more survivors at the high-elevation tea plantation.
There were conflicting reports of how many people were missing in the slide, which struck Wednesday morning in the island nation’s central hills after heavy monsoon rains.
Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the number of dead at the Koslanda tea plantation would be fewer than 100. But Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Center — which Amaraweera oversees — reported 190 people missing.
Villagers, meanwhile, said the death toll could easily exceed 200.
“I have visited the scene and from what I saw I don’t think there will be any survivors,” Amaraweera said Thursday. “But that number is less than 100.”
Frustrated relatives who had watched the search from the sidelines tried to follow a politician into the search site but were stopped by police. However, the politician argued with police and took villagers with him who joined hundreds of soldiers searching through the mud for survivors.
The search was suspended Thursday evening because of heavy rain.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the disaster site Thursday and spoke to residents who are taking shelter in schools and temples. According to his website, Rajapaksa ordered officials to expedite rescue and relief for the victims.
Television reports showed Rajapaksa inspecting the disaster from the air and meeting with relief officials. Later he was seen distributing sleeping mats and boxes with essential items to the displaced people and consoling weeping men and women.
Amaraweera said the government had asked the National Child Protection Authority to take charge of children orphaned by the disaster.
Many children had left for school before the slide and returned to see their homes buried with their parents. A government minister told Parliament that they have found 75 orphaned children.
“The government will be fully responsible for them, we will not give them to anyone other than somebody from immediate family because they can be sent for child labor,” he said.
A large number of children in Sri Lanka’s tea plantations drop out of school and work as domestic helpers or waiters in tea boutiques. Many times parents send children to work due to poverty or alcoholism.
Displaced people spent their second evening Thursday crammed inside a dark, cold school classroom atop a misty mountain. Government officials had begun a survey of the dead and missing and doctors attended to the sick and wounded.
