Indian social workers console Tanubai Lembe (L) and Meenabai Lembe (2R), survivors of the landslide at Malin village in Pune district in the western state of Maharashtra, as they recuperate at a government hospital in Manchar
AFP/Pune
Rescue workers were losing hope Friday of finding survivors amid the mud and debris from a major landslide in western India, where 150 people are feared to have been killed.
Fifty bodies and eight survivors have now been pulled from the site where a village once stood in a remote part of Maharashtra state, but incessant rains and strong winds have hampered rescue efforts.
"The debris is huge and since it is wet mud, there is negligible chance of air pockets. Any more survivors would be miracles," Ganesh Pawar, medical officer at the rural hospital treating casualties, told AFP.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has said about 160 people were thought to have been living in the dozens of houses damaged when a hill gave way and cascaded onto their village of Malin.
Relatives on Thursday told of losing whole families after tonnes of earth and trees came crashing down onto the homes below.
"I lost my dad, mum, nephew, my whole family. What will I do? I have nothing left," inconsolable Usha Vilas Gavar, 30, told AFP close to the scene.
The NDRF, which mobilised 378 rescue workers to help with the search, worked into the night in a desperate hunt for any more survivors after lights powered by portable generators were set up.
Its vehicles initially had difficulty accessing the site along narrow, damaged roads and the army was seen arriving to help on Thursday afternoon.
Among the handful rescued were Pramila Lembe, 25, and her three-month-old baby Rudra, who were recovering with no major injuries in hospital having been shielded by their home's tin wall.
"I was breastfeeding the baby when I heard a loud thunder-like clap. I tried to run but the wall collapsed," Lembe said.
