WAYANAD, India (AP) — Hopes of finding more than 180 missing people alive waned as rescue workers searched through mud and debris for a third day Thursday after landslides set off by torrential rains killed at least 194 people in southern India.
The rescue work was challenging in a forested, hilly area while more rain fell, said P.M Manoj, a spokesman for Kerala state’s top elected official. Nearly 40 bodies were found downstream after being swept some 30 kilometers (20 miles) down the Chaliyar River from the area in Wayanad district where the main landslides occurred. Body parts were also recovered.
Torrents of mud and water swept through tea estates and villages in hilly areas in the district early Tuesday. They flattened houses and destroyed bridges, and rescuers had to pull out people stuck under mud and debris. “This is one of the worst natural calamities Kerala state has ever witnessed,” Kerala’s top elected official, Pinarayi…