COLOMBO: Sri Lankan rescuers on Thursday recovered the drowned corpses of six children, taking the number killed in torrential rains to 12, as a powerful but slow-moving storm headed towards India.

More than 335,000 people in Sri Lanka have been forced to flee after their homes were flooded, Colombo’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said.

It said two men driving a tractor and trailer which had been transporting the six children in the eastern Amara district when it was swept away in floods, were still missing. Searches continue for them.

Indian weather officials said there was a “possibility” that the deep depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal could develop into a cyclonic storm.