Five killed, 1000s evacuated as floods sweep across Sri Lanka
Pakistan Times Monitoring Report

COLOMBO (Sri Lanka): Heavy floods and landslides across Sri Lanka have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of around 133,000 people, an official and news reports said Wednesday.

A landslide late Tuesday killed four people in one family in Badulla, 230 kilometers (143 miles) east of capital Colombo, said Janaka Gunawardena, assistant director of the nation's Disaster Management Center.

Also Tuesday, a police officer was swept to his death by flood waters while he crossed a river bridge in eastern Ampara district, the Tamil-language newspaper Virakesari reported.

The state-run Daily News reported around 133,000 people across the country had to abandon their homes because of the flooding. The government has launched relief efforts to provide food and shelter to those affected.

Gunawardena said some of the displaced have been able to return to their homes as the rains subside.

Dozens of people were killed in heavy floods and landslides in southern Sri Lanka in May 2003.●