Another body was recovered on Thursday, raising the death toll from multiple landslides in Mizoram's Aizawl district to 28, according to a police officer.
Aizawl Superintendent of Police (SP) Rahool Alwal informed on Thursday that a body of a non-local resident was found in the debris of a landslide at Hlimen, located on the southern outskirts of Aizawl, at 11 am. This brings the total number of recovered bodies to 28, which also include three minors and seven non-local residents from Jharkhand and Assam.
Speaking of the incident, while, SP Alwal noted that six people, including a six-month-old baby, are still believed to be missing, he said the death toll reached 28. Meanwhile, it is pertinent to note that the authorities have earlier, reported a death toll of 29 on Wednesday, they later corrected the figure to 27, citing poor mobile network communication as the cause of the erroneous information from Aibawk village, where the search for two missing persons is ongoing.
Officials have also further detailed the extent of the tragedy. They mentioned while 15 bodies were recovered from a massive landslide at a stone quarry in the Melthum area, six of the death have been reported from Hlimen, two from Falkawn village approximately 15 km from Aizawl, and one each from Lungsei and Kelsih villages, where houses were swept away by landslides.
Meanwhile, the rescue and search operations have once again commenced Thursday morning in the Melthum, Hlimen, and Aibawk areas for the third consecutive day. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), police, fire department, and Quick Response Team (QRT) have been deployed, with assistance from Young Mizo Association (YMA) volunteers.
Earlier, Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma has also announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 4 lakh for the families of those killed in the landslides and other calamities caused by rain in other parts of the state. He also stated that the government has allocated Rs 15 crore to address disasters triggered by the rain, which occurred as an after-effect of Cyclone Remal.
(With inputs from PTI)
