Monsoon rain and strong winds in Sri Lanka have killed at least 27 people with many more wounded and missing, mostly fishermen caught in rough seas, an official said Sunday. The navy and air force kept up a search for 29 fishermen listed missing since the monsoon lashed the south-western coast early Saturday, the spokesman for the Colombo-based Disaster Management Centre , Sarath Lal Kumara, told AFP.
A DMC statement said the toll had increased to 26 fishermen dead and another man killed on land, while a total of 35 people had been hospitalised since Saturday due to incidents caused by the weather. "The weather has improved during the day and the rescue operations are under way," Kumara said. More than 100 houses had been completely destroyed and over 2,100 left partially damaged due to strong winds, he added.
A government minister said assistance was being offered to bereaved families as well as to those who had lost their homes. Sarath Kumara Gunaratne, deputy minister of fisheries and co-ordinator of disaster relief, said most of the victims were fishermen using very small boats that operated close to the coastline.
On Saturday officials confirmed the deaths of five people due to the monsoon which hits annually, bringing much-needed rain, but also frequently causing loss of life and damage to property. Security forces were deployed to clear fallen trees and power lines strewn on several key highways, the military said. A 20-foot (6-metre) whale washed ashore in Colombo on Saturday while a stranded giant sea turtle was rescued by locals at a suburb of the coastal capital, police said.
Authorities opened the sluice gates of four major hydroelectricity reservoirs in central Sri Lanka late Saturday to prevent damage to dams. Seven people were killed in the country last month when a tropical cyclone brushed the eastern coast.