Landslides in India’s Kerala kill at least 106

Landslides swept through tea estates and villages in southern India’s Kerala on Tuesday, killing at least 106 people while they slept as unexpected heavy rain collapsed hillsides and triggered torrents of mud, water and tumbling boulders. The hillsides gave way after midnight following torrential rainfall on Monday in the Wayanad district of Kerala, a state known as one of India’s most popular tourist destinations. Most of the victims were tea estate workers and their families who lived in small houses or makeshift shelters. Television images showed rescue workers scrambling through uprooted trees and flattened tin structures as boulders lay strewn across the hillsides and muddy water gushed through. At least 106 people were killed in the landslides, 128 injured and dozens unaccounted for, state authorities said. Tuesday’s landslides are the worst disaster in the state since 2018 when heavy floods killed almost 400 people. (Agencies) page 5