Six dead, over 5,000 affected by continuous rain in Sri Lanka

Six people have died and over 5,000 affected by days of winds and heavy rains which lashed out across Sri Lanka since last week, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the country’s disaster management centre here Monday.

Out of the six deaths reported, four were from the Nuwera Eliya district in the central highlands, which was one of the worst affected areas.

Over 600 people had been evacuated to safe locations while over 120 houses have been partially or fully damaged.

The disaster management centre said that relevant agencies had been deployed in many of the affected areas and were currently carrying out rescue missions.

A landslide warning has also been issued for certain districts, including in Ratnapura, in south-central Sri Lanka and those living in landslide-prone areas have been warned to vacate immediately.

The meteorology department in its latest weather update said more rains were expected in the coming days due to the northeast monsoons establishing over the country.

The areas likely to be the worst affected were the northern and eastern parts of the country while cloudy skies could be expected over other parts of the island.

"General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimise damages caused by temporary localised strong winds and lightning during thundershowers," it said.

- Bernama