Death toll at Maharashtra village landslide increases to 24
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Mumbai: In the Raigad region of Maharashtra, three more victims were found by search and rescue teams on Saturday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 25. Irshalwadi village was devastated by the landslide, and three more bodies were found there.
Two women and a man are among the deceased, he said.
"Bodies of two women and a man were recovered from the landslide site in Irshalwadi on Saturday," an official of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said.
With this, the death toll in the landslide tragedy has gone up to 25, he said, adding that the search and rescue work is still underway as 83 persons are yet to be traced.
The deceased women were identified as 32-year-old Mahi Madhu Tirkat, Aashi Pandurang (around 50 years). The male deceased was identified as Kishan Tirkat, 27, officials said.
Teams of the NDRF and other government agencies resumed their search and rescue operation at the landslide site, located in hilly terrain, in the morning. This is the third day of the search operation.
The massive landslide hit Irshalwadi, a tribal village located on a hill slope in the coastal district, around 80km from Mumbai, on Wednesday night. At least 17 of 48 houses in the village were fully or partially buried under the landslide debris.
As the village, overlooked by Irshalgad fort, a popular trekking destination, does not have a pucca road, earth movers and excavators could not be easily moved and the rescue operation is being carried out manually, officials said.
With PTI inputs