Colombo - Sri Lanka has called off search operations for the bodies of those killed in a landslide in the central part of the country, Minister of Disaster Management Mahinda Amaraweera said on Monday.
The death toll in the October 29 disaster is officially listed at 34, but the military, which conducted recovery operations, found only 14 bodies at the site at Meeriyabedda, Koslanda, 200km east of the capital Colombo.
The others are believed to be buried in the landslide, Amaraweera said.
Fifty-eight families evacuated from the area would be housed in an abandoned tea factory for three months. After that, new houses will be built for them by the state, Amaraweera said.
Some 330 persons were living in the affected area, but at the time of the landslide 75 children had left for school and most others had gone to work on the tea plantation. - Sapa-dpa