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14 die in heavy rains in India's northeast
At least 14 people were killed and a dozen more injured in mudslides triggered by heavy rains in India's northeastern state of Nagaland, officials said. A police official said several houses were demolished when small hillocks caved in Thursday, trapping sleeping villagers in Mokokchung, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Nagaland's capital Kohima. "The casualties took place when mounds of earth buried sleeping villagers," Mokokchung district magistrate T. Imkong told AFP by telephone on Friday. The dead include at least five children. Fresh landslides continued Friday but there were no immediate reports of further casualties. "Rescue workers are looking for more bodies that could be trapped in the debris," Imkong said. "Up to a dozen houses, some of them mud-and-thatch huts, were damaged in the landslides." Heavy rains in the past three days triggered mudslides in the mountainous state, blocking roads and disrupting communications in many places, officials said. Meanwhile, authorities in adjoining Assam state have asked officials to be on alert amid fears the rain-swollen Brahmaputra River might spill its banks. Every year floods in Assam leave a trail of destruction, causing loss of life, washing away villages, submerging paddy fields and drowning livestock. Last year, officials said some 200 people died and tens of thousands were left homeless by floods in Assam. |
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