COLOMBO—Emergency workers looking for survivors after a massive rubbish dump collapsed in Sri Lanka suspended their search on Saturday night, having already extracted 19 bodies from the rubble and mud.
The 300-foot-high (90-metre) dump in the capital Colombo collapsed after flames engulfed it late on Friday, the nation’s new year’s day, and witnesses said around 100 houses could have been buried.
The rescue mission will resume at 6 a.m. (2030 ET Saturday), Sudantha Ranasinghe, the military official heading the operation, said.
“The main obstacle is we don’t have a clear idea of how many people are buried as nobody is claiming that their relatives are missing, unlike on previous occasions,” Ranasinghe told Reuters.
“We don’t have any deadline and we will continue until we clear everything.”
The police said they were investigating whether the landslide was natural or man-made. They also said about 145 houses had been damaged.
