MOSCOW, August 3 (RIA Novosti) – The death toll from Wednesday’s devastating landslide in India’s Maharashtra state climbed to 92, Agence France Presse reported Sunday.
“So far we have found 92 bodies and eight survivors. But we expect to find 68 more bodies … About 60 percent of the area has been cleared and more than 50 percent of the rescue effort is done,” the agency quoted Alok Awasthi, commandant of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), as saying.
According to earlier reports, 82 people died in the tragedy.
On early Wednesday, a landslide hit Malin village near Pune in Maharashtra state, flattening over 40 houses. Dozens of people are trapped in the landslide debris and only eight have been pulled out alive. The death toll is expected to further rise as 155 people are still unaccounted for.
More than 40 NDRF rescuers, as well as more than 300 personnel from the state’s capital, Pune have been sent to the accident scene.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the country's interior minister, Rajnath Singh, to control the rescue works at the site.
Shocked by the scale of devastation, Singh announced financial help for the victims from the federal government.
