India landslides kill at least 24 as hundreds feared trapped

This handout photograph taken on July 30, 2024, and released by India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) shows a damaged car at the landslide site in Wayanad. The southern coastal state of Kerala has been battered by torrential downpours, and the collapse of a key bridge at the disaster site in Wayanad district has hampered rescue efforts, according to local media reports. (Photo by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) / Agence France-Presse)

BENGALURU, India — Landslides in India triggered by pounding monsoon rains have killed at least 24 people with hundreds more feared trapped under mud and debris, officials said Tuesday.

The southern coastal state of Kerala has been battered by torrential downpours, and the collapse of a key bridge at the disaster site in Wayanad district has hampered rescue efforts, according to local media reports.

“So far, we have received 24 bodies in different hospitals,” Kerala state health minister Reena George told the Press Trust of India news agency.

“Many are injured, they are under treatment” in district hospitals, she added.

Images published by the National Disaster Response Force show rescue crews carrying bodies on stretchers out of the disaster site through muddy earth and scattered debris thrown up by the force of the landslide’s impact.

READ: Heavy rains trigger floods and landslides in India’s Himalayan region, leaving at least 48 dead

India’s army said it had deployed more than 200 soldiers to the area to assist state security forces and fire crews in search and rescue efforts.

“Hundreds of people are suspected to have been trapped,” it said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had assured the Kerala government of “all possible help” with the situation.

“My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones and prayers with those injured,” he said in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

More rainfall and strong winds were forecast in Kerala on Tuesday, the state’s disaster management agency said.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who until recently represented Wayanad in parliament, said he was “deeply anguished” by the disaster.

“I hope those still trapped are brought to safety soon,” he added.

Several people injured in the landslides were brought to a hospital in the district for treatment.

READ: 10 dead, more than 100 feared trapped in landslide in India after heavy rain

Monsoon rains across the region from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies.

They are vital for agriculture and therefore the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security for South Asia’s nearly two billion people.

But they also bring destruction in the form of landslides and floods.

The number of fatal floods and landslides has increased in recent years, and experts say climate change is exacerbating the problem.

Damming, deforestation and development projects in India have also exacerbated the human toll.

Intense monsoon storms battered India earlier this month, flooding parts of the financial capital Mumbai, while lightning in the eastern state of Bihar killed at least 10 people.

At least 25 people were killed in floods and landslides across Kerala in 2021.

In 2018, nearly 500 people were killed around Kerala during the worst flooding to hit the state in almost a century.