At least 93 killed in India landslides

At least 93 people were killed as landslides swept through tea estates and villages in southern India’s Kerala on Tuesday, according to local media.

Most of the victims were tea estate workers and their families who were asleep in makeshift shelters.

Television images showed rescue workers scrambling through uprooted trees and flattened tin structures as boulders lay strewn across the hillsides and muddy water gushed through.

Rescuers were being pulled across a stream, carrying stretchers and other equipment to rescue people.

The landslides are the worst disaster to hit Kerala since 2018, when deadly floods killed more than 400 people.

Chief Minister Pinari Vijayan told a press conference that Tuesday’s “landslide has wiped out an entire area”.

Local hospitals are treating at least 123 injured, and more than 3,000 people have been rescued and moved to 45 relief camps, he said.

A bridge connecting Chooralmala to Mundakkai and Attamala has collapsed, isolating the two places and making it difficult for rescue personnel to reach trapped families.

Nearly 350 families are believed to have lived in the affected regions, where a number of tea and cardamom estates are located.