Desperate calls for help

Frantic phone calls were made by people desperately pleading for help after being trapped under destroyed houses and piles of debris as landslides rocked the high-range hamlets of Kerala’s Wayanad district in the early hours of Tuesday.

Television channels aired phone conversations of several people crying and requesting someone to come and rescue them as they were either trapped in their houses or had no way to travel as bridges had been washed away and the roads were flooded.

In one such conversation, a woman, apparently a native of Chooralmala town, was heard crying aloud, saying that someone in her house was trapped under the marsh and debris and could not be pulled out.

“Someone, please come and help us. We have lost our house. We don't know whether Nausheen (apparently a family member) is alive. She is trapped in the marsh. Our house is in the town itself...,” the woman could be heard saying.

A man, another native of Chooralmala, said in a phone conversation that the place was still shaking and they didn’t know what to do.

“The earth is shaking. There is a huge noise in the place. We have no way to come from Chooralmala,” he said.

Another man, in a phone call, alerted that a large number of people were trapped under mud and battling for life in Mundakkai.

“If someone can come here by vehicle from the Meppadi area, we can save the lives of hundreds of people,” he said.

An elderly man with injuries told a television channel that his wife was missing and he did not know where she was.

“We were sleeping in the house. Suddenly, a loud noise was heard, and huge boulders and trees were seen suddenly falling down on the roof of our house. Flood water entered the premises, destroying the shutters in front of the house,” he said.

He also said someone had rescued him and shifted him to hospital, but his wife was missing.