Aizawl, June 1: Four persons, including three Myanmarese refugees, were killed while one was injured when their houses collapsed due to landslides triggered by heavy rain in Mizoram on Saturday, taking the toll in the current spate of downpour to five, officials said.
Three persons, aged between 34 and 71 years, from a Myanmarese family have died and another was injured when a massive landslide struck and buried their rented house at Vaphai village in east Mizoram’s Champhai district near the India-Myanmar border on Saturday, they said.
The family had been taking shelter in the village since 2021 following the military coup in the neighbouring country, they said.
The injured person was taken to a nearby hospital at Farkawn.
In a separate incident, a 53-year-old man was killed when his house collapsed due to a landslide in Serchhip district, about 114 km from state capital Aizawl, on Saturday.
Officials said that the victim succumbed to his injuries in Serchhip District Hospital.
On Friday, a 37-year-old man was killed and another injured when a wall collapsed on a labourer camp at Aizawl’s Thuampui area.
Meanwhile, all the missing persons, who were trapped under the debris of a collapsed building in Lawngtlai town were rescued, an official of the District Disaster Management Authority said.
Speaking to PTI, the official said that three out 20 people from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, who were staying in the lodge, went missing after the building, besides five other buildings in the town, collapsed following heavy rain.
The incident occurred around 10.35 pm on Friday when landslides triggered by heavy rain struck the buildings in the contiguous areas of Bazar veng and Chandmary localities in Lawngtlai, he said.
One person escaped from the debris on his own soon after the collapse, while two more persons were rescued on Saturday, he said.
He said the Myanmar nationals had come to Mizoram for business and 17 of them had gone outside at the time of the incident.
Three caretakers of the lodge and occupants of other buildings had escaped just before the incident, he said.
Rescue teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), 3rd Indian Reserve Battalion, security forces, the Disaster Management Authority and Young Lai Association (YLA), among others, will continue to clear the debris on Sunday, he said.
Lawngtlai Superintendent of Police (SP) Lokeshwaran told PTI that the area where the incident occurred was severely hit by massive landslides in 1995.
He said the collapsed buildings included a three-storey building and two under-construction buildings.
He said that the incident is suspected to have been caused by the continuous inflow of water into the area due to incessant heavy rain.
Mizoram has been experiencing heavy rain since Friday, triggering landslides and rockfalls at several places.
An IMD report said Lawngtlai district received 205 mm of rainfall on Saturday, Khawzawl 184 mm, Hnahthial 130 and Aizawl 91 mm of rainfall.
At least 56 houses were damaged in 147 landslides across the state on Saturday, according to a bulletin by the state Emergency Operation Centre.
Sixty-three families were also evacuated to safer places due to landslides and floods, it said.
Landslides have also blocked national and intra-state highways at 69 locations, the bulletin said.
Officials also said that many travellers intending to travel to the southern part of the state were stranded in Serchhip town after landslides damaged a national highway.(PTI)
