Mud and slush surround a building in Malin village in Pune district after a landslide yesterday. The landslide killed at least 25 people.

Agencies/Pune

 

Heavy rain triggered a landslide in Maharashtra that killed at least 25 people and trapped up to 150 more after thick mud came crashing down on thatch huts and brick houses yesterday, a national disaster official said.

Rescue teams and local residents pulled people out of the deep mud and put them on stretchers, television images showed.

Seven teams of 42 rescue workers each arrived at the disaster site, a village 120km from Pune, but rain, mud and poor communications hampered efforts, Sandeep Rai Rathore, inspector general of the national disaster force, said.

Only two residents had been rescued by yesterday evening, he said.

“The area is quite a difficult terrain,” said Rathore, adding that rescuers were trying to determine how many people were caught in the landslide.

Alok Avasthy, regional commandant at the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), also said up to 150 were feared trapped by the landslide, which damaged about 50 houses.

He said that it was difficult to confirm casualties as the village has been cut off from communications. Rains were also hampering rescue operations.

Television footage showed the side of a hill shaved off, with large amounts of mud, muddy water and logs piled below.

Heavy machinery has been mobilised to try to rescue those feared trapped, while about 30 ambulances rushed to the scene, government official Saurav Rao said.

“Exact number of casualties is not known as we are moving slowly to ensure that those trapped are removed safely,” Rao said.

Divisional Commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh said the rescue operation was a challenge with the area 15-20km from the nearest medical facility, but he said it should speed up once the NDRF teams arrive.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed Home Minister Rajnath Singh to rush to Pune to take stock of the situation.

“The prime minister has condoled the loss of lives in the landslide, and directed all possible efforts to help the affected people,” a government statement said.

With barely six structures left intact, the bustling Malin village of about 50 homes has been wiped off the state’s map.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and cabinet colleagues Harshvardhan Patil and Madhukarro Pichad visited the accident site.

Earlier yesterday, police official Vinod Pawar said the accident occurred at about 5am.

Eyewitnesses claimed the landslide may have occurred at about 7am as a driver of a state transport bus passing through failed to find the village which was his regular service stop.

Heavy rains have been falling for days in Maharashtra as a result of the annual monsoon.

Nearly 6,000 pilgrims, tourists and others are believed to have died when flash floods and landslides struck northern India last June.

The victims were swept away when floods caused by torrential monsoon rains hit the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, destroying entire villages and towns.

Raging rivers flattened houses and buildings in the state, which was packed with travellers in what was a peak tourist season.

Building collapses are a common occurrence in India, especially during the rainy season, with millions living in dilapidated old structures or newly built but illegal constructions made from substandard material.

An apartment tower under construction came crashing down in the southern city of Chennai late June following heavy rains, killing 61, mostly labourers.

A similar accident on the outskirts of Mumbai last year left 74 dead.

British daily The Guardian last year gathered statistics showing that 2,651 people were killed across India in 2012 from the collapse of 2,737 structures, including houses and bridges.