Army Media Spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera said, the search operations in Aranayake landslide hit area were continuing even yesterday(29) despite scattered rains and fading hopes for survivors.
He said, that about 100 army personnel were continuing search operations, while taking safety precautions as the area was experiencing rains from time to time. The Army had recovered 27 bodies and 21 parts of bodies.
“We have been unable to ascertain the exact number of the dead and number of missing persons as there are difficulties in identifying the body parts. We have not deducted the number of body parts from the number of missing. We are not in a position to do so. Therefore as of the records we have, the number of missing still stands at 131,” he said.
As of the Disaster Management Centre statistics, the number of missing had dropped to 96 while the number of deaths from Aranayake landslide had increased to 48.
