Rescue crews search for 100 missing after Sri Lanka landslide

Rescue workers stepped up their desperate search Thursday for survivors of a landslide in Sri Lanka which is feared to have buried alive 100 people on a tea plantation, deploying heavy diggers to claw through the mud. After rescuers, including soldiers, spent much of Wednesday using their bare hands to try and locate victims of the disaster in the eastern Koslanda district, military sources said five industrial excavators which are usually used to dig trenches were to join the search effort at first light. Officials have already warned that the chances of finding survivors are slim with a senior government minister voicing fears that the death toll would reach three figures.

Asia-Pacific Sri Lanka