Landslide triggered by rains hits village in India; more than 150 people trapped

A mudslide surrounds a building in Malin village in Pune district the western Indian state of Maharashtra on July 30, 2014. A major landslide struck a village in western India following heavy monsoon rains, leaving 150 people feared trapped, a rescue official said. The landslide submerged Malin village, said Alok Avasthy, regional commandant at the National Disaster Response Force. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

NEW DELHI — A landslide hit a village in western India following torrential rains Wednesday, sweeping away scores of houses and raising fears that more than 150 people could be trapped, officials said.

Federal rescue workers were being hampered by continuing rains and poor roads leading to the village of Ambe in Pune district in Maharashtra state, where the landslide buried about 40 houses, said local commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh.

“Reaching the exact space is taking time because there is a lot of damage to the road,” Sandeep Rai Rathore, a top official of the federal National Disaster Response Force, told NDTV news channel.

A mudslide is seen in Malin village in Pune district the western Indian state of Maharashtra on July 30, 2014. (AFP/Getty Images)

Police and medical teams arrived in the area but had difficulty communicating because of poor telephone and cellphone connectivity, local legislator Dilip Walse Patil told CNN-IBN TV network.

“It is a small village and this happened very suddenly,” he added.

Landslides are common in the area during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September.

The Pune district about is 151 kilometres southeast of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital. The nearest medical centre is about 15 kilometres from the village.