Three Killed in Landslides As Torrential Rains Batter Assam

Guwahati: Three people, including a mother and child, were killed in landslides here following torrential rains since Thursday night which triggered flash floods and led to water logging in several areas, official sources said on Friday.

Landslides at Sankardeb Nagar and Hastinapur at 9th mile in Jorabat along the Assam-Meghalaya inter-state border claimed three lives in two separate incidents, a Kamrup (Metro) district administration release said.

A 22-year old woman, Rakhee Subedi and her two-and-a-half-year-old son Ayush Subedi were killed due to landslide at around 12.30pm on Friday at Hastinapur, it said.

Stating that the victims were residing on government land, it said the district administration had warned the locals to relocate to safer places before the monsoon onset as Hastinapur is a landslide prone area.

In another incident around midnight on Thursday, a 60-year-old woman identified as Indira Devi Dorjee died at Sankardev Nagar when a wall of the house where she was sleeping caved in on her following thundershowers, the release said.

The other members in their four-room house, however, escaped unhurt even as the roof and walls collapsed due to landslide, police sources and the family said.

The district administration announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of the three deceased. The landslides also buried a few vehicles parked alongside roads, police added.

The heavy rains in the Jorabat area inundated the national highway affecting vehicular movement on both sides of the border, police said.

Birinchi Das, incharge of Jorabat police outpost, on Thursday night risked his life by jumping into the neck-deep water to rescue passengers from stranded buses, police added.

The sudden heavy rains continuing threw normal life out of gear causing massive water logging in various localities of Guwahati, including RG Baruah Road, GS Road, Anil Nagar, Nabin Nagar, Ganeshguri, Bhangagarh, Rajgarh Road, Chandmari, Guwahati Club areas with the main thoroughfares looking like rivers.

With water-logging in the Dispur capital complex where the Secretariat, assembly, ministers' and legislators' residences are located, knee-deep water entered the quarters of several MLAs and at the MLA Hostel compound, official sources said.