Defence account of rescue work

Rescue teams comprising the Army, Navy and NDRF are collectively looking for survivors by unearthing the debris and breaking into the remains of houses destroyed or covered with mud in the landslides.

According to a Defence statement, army units deployed in the area rescued around 1,000 people from the affected areas until Tuesday night.

Additionally, the Air Force is carrying out aerial reconnaissance of the affected areas to coordinate search and rescue operations and is using helicopters to airlift people stranded in various places in the landslide affected areas.

In Mundakkai, which was cut off from the rest of the district, makeshift bridges and pulleys were erected over gushing rivers to transport people stranded there to safety and shift bodies recovered from destroyed homes to ambulances.

As the majority of houses were flattened, rescuers broke open the roofs using hammers and pickaxes, as heavy machinery could not be brought there due to lack of proper roads or bridges, to enter the collapsed structures and search for any people trapped inside.

Rescue agencies resumed their operations early in the morning to trace people suspected to be trapped following the landslides triggered by heavy rains.

Efforts were on to bring materials to build a 190-foot-long Bailey bridge to connect the worst-affected areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala and intensify rescue operations there.

The bridge will be constructed by Thursday.

Besides that, sniffer dogs, trained by the army to detect people buried under soil, are also being brought there, he further said, adding that an intelligent buried object detection system will also be used for that purpose.